Comfort In Disappointments!

   How gentle is the comforting, reassuring voice and presence of the Holy Spirit.  It can be sensed in literally every church service, even to those who have not experienced the...
... baptism of the Spirit of God.  It is often God's personal way of comforting us in times of great disappointment.  Many, today, are in that place. 
  
   Today, so many people are desperately ready for change in their lives, and it is the church's responsibility to be able to respond.  How?  By being filled and equipped with the Spirit and full presence of Jesus Christ, not just by word (lip service), but by deeds (actions, fruit).  People are not interested in church as it has been.  People are not interested in going to church, simply to say "they went".  People need the power and presence, the hope that the secular world cannot provide.  We must be able to be positioned by Christ, to receive and impart to His people, comfort, peace, hope, joy, mercy and the ministry of reconciliation.  Families are falling apart! We must be willing and able to have the answer.  People are falling away!  We must be equipped and humble enought to assist in seeing, and bringing them to full restoration... or what is longsuffering?  Our own families are struggling, and here we are 'examples of Christianity".  Do we have what it takes to comfort others, in our own time of disappointment?  Therein can be found a great challenge.

   We all have challenges, struggles and obstacles that position themselves in the path of our goals, in an effort to discourage our hope; our faith.  But our hope, and our faith remain in Christ.  We know all to well, as we mature, that the promise of God to fulfill the desires of our hearts is steadfast and sure.

   As we grow in the Lord, we learn to lay aside our own disapppointments, truly leaving them with the Lord in trust, and tend to His flock... even those who have strayed.  They, too, are facing great disappointments... some of what has been brought upon by their own wrong decisions.  In all of that, though, they also need comfort in their disappointments, and we are "supposed" to be the vessel by which the Lords brings restoration... if we are willing and available.  If we want to see and experience the anointing of God to fill our churches, then we must be willing to go the extra mile, crucify the flesh we continue to preach about, and go after the one with little or no hope, and bring comfort.