The consolation of God, the antidote to the cares of this life

How do you feel in the ever-increasing complexity and pressures of life?

I’m constantly exhausted and often find a multitude of thoughts running through my mind all day and intruding my resting hours as I lie in bed at night. Questions, problems, planning solutions. My hopes, my fears, and my desires all jostle each other as I try and make sense of what’s happening today, what’s going to happen tomorrow, and how I might avoid conflict and disappointment.

Psalm 94 elegantly expresses it in one verse:

“In the multitude of my thoughts within me, thy comforts delight my soul.” (v.19)

The context of this psalm suggests that the perplexity, the anxiety, and the emotion that I feel is the “multitude of thoughts” that race around my mind. But what struck me was that the psalmist also prescribes the remedy for this turmoil: comforts that delight the soul.

Now, the most reassuring and the most comforting feeling that I’ve ever experienced was lying in my mother’s lap after I’d injured myself. And after the immense effort of enduring that pain had subsided, and the tears had stopped, I remember just lying there, nearly falling asleep with exhaustion, and Mum gently stroking my forehead and rocking me in her arms. This is the sense of the word translated “delight” here: that of a mother gently soothing and stroking to comfort an upset child.

God’s comfort is offered here as the antidote to anxiety and the pressure of our daily life. The psalmist found peace and consolation by remembering God’s mercy and His strength.

“When I said my foot slippeth, thy mercy O LORD held me up.” (v18)

“But the LORD is my defence and my God is the rock of my refuge.” (v22)

By thinking on these things, the psalmist felt a calming influence, and perplexity and anxiety was replaced by a new feeling of thanks and praise.

I know that this is what I need. Perhaps you do, too. But, it’s not easy, is it!

The reality of trying to make our way in this world

I’ve been facing these problems for a long time. But it was preparing an exhort on this psalm that prompted me to consider the scriptural solution and this article is about what I found.

I was also provoked by the theme of a talk at an ecclesial camp. That study was titled, “Beware of Pharaoh,” and demonstrated how our society pressures us to fit into the established social norms: to have a nice car, to own a house, to send our kids to good schools, and get a good education. The brother revealed how Pharaoh used subtlety to keep Israel in Egypt, to make use of them to build Egypt’s economy, to build their treasure cities, and maintain their power. He used the prospect of prosperity to keep Israel busy working for him. This is the same in our society today.

For me, it was an exact fit; it’s what I’ve been struggling with. While I don’t feel like I’m driven in a desire for wealth, I do feel the pressure of the necessity of living and working in our society.

We work in a competitive marketplace dominated by large corporates geared towards leveraging the maximum profits from their staff and customers, rather than providing well for the needs of those involved. Products are priced around the maximum people will pay for them rather than their true value. Inevitably, we end up stretching ourselves to accommodate these social norms and do whatever it takes to pay for the things we feel we need. Maybe what we feel we need is actually more than what God intends for us … maybe it’s not? I don’t quite know how to balance this. Nevertheless, we know from God’s Word that, despite these pressures, we shouldn’t prioritise temporal pressures over the requirements of God.

Who comes first?

But this is where I have the problem. Work takes all my time and all my energy, filling my mind with a multitude of thoughts and leaving me exhausted, with nothing left to give God or my family. I know this affects my relationships, but I’ve felt powerless and stuck with the notion that the work still needs to be done regardless of what I choose.

I’ve realised that I must still be relying on my own strength, and not God’s.

I’ve struggled to understand how God works in our personal lives when every decision I make and every action that I take has a natural cause and effect. Another thing is that I’m scared of failure, I’m scared of disappointing people, of conflict and unhappiness, and so I do all within my power to avoid them. Yet, no matter how hard I try to avoid these, it ends up being counterproductive. While I don’t like letting people down, the first things that I inevitably compromise when I’m exhausted are the Readings, my personal prayers, conversations with people, and helping others. All of the important, big things to God.

What’s the most important?

I’m reminded of that great illustration of filling a jar with sand and stones: how you can only fit everything in if you put the big stones (the most important things) in first, and then pour the sand around these to fill up the gaps. In the context of prioritising our lives, it naturally feels like a very big risk to relinquish the control, by stepping back from working on what appears to be immediately pressing issues, to read God’s Word, or help others, or talk to those who we love, in the hope that God will provide for our temporal needs.

Of course, we still have to finish our temporal work, as this is our lot under the sun. But God is asking that we not be anxious about this and it should not be our priority. The sand needs to be poured around the foundation of the stones, not the other way around.

The Lord’s familiar words in (Matthew 6:24–34 are so applicable,

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Even though I don’t feel like I’m seeking after riches, which is what I think of when I read about serving mammon, in effect, I have still been making mammon more important than God by committing my best to the service of temporal things.

It’s worth continuing in Matthew 6 …

“Therefore, I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; but your heavenly father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore, take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

The intent of this passage is to illustrate that God can and that God will provide for our temporal needs if we seek His kingdom first. It repeats the advice, take no thought for tomorrow, or don’t be anxious about how we’ll acquire those temporal necessities of life.

How do we do this?

That’s a big call! I think, to have this attitude requires a massive shift from how people think and arrange their lives today. But the point is that all these things that consume us aren’t important to the purpose of God, and somehow, we need to look at them from His perspective.

I mentioned how I’ve struggled to understand how God works in our lives when every decision and every action I make will invariably have a natural cause and effect. Well, I did find a passage in Scripture that helped, and that’s 1 Corinthians 3v6,

“I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.”

I’ve previously only considered this statement in the context of preaching, but this gives us a glimpse of how God works in conjunction with our actions. I think we can apply these words, in principle, to our daily life also. God will bless our actions and decisions as He sees fit. He will provide the increase. In fact, we might work with all our might, yet God may not provide the increase.

I also want to highlight here that according to the Bible we shouldn’t expect our lives to be comfortable, nor should we be doing everything in our power to avoid difficulty.

The benefits of following Christ

Now consider 2 Corinthians 1:3–4,

“Blessed be God, even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort we ourselves are comforted of God.”

So, God is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, and we’ve been given comfort so we might comfort others. But, he continues:

“For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” (verse 5)

“Our hope of you is steadfast knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye also be also of the consolation.” (verse 7)

So, if we suffer because we’re trying to follow the example of the Lord, then we can find consolation because of what the Lord has done for us.

Thus: I feel like I don’t have the energy to do the Daily Readings after work, but, if my life is harder because of this, I can find consolation by remembering the work of Christ.

The words “comfort” and “consolation” used through this chapter in Corinthians are all the same Greek word. And, I think it may be best translated “consolation” because this means “the comfort received after disappointment.”

Now, we know that this life isn’t easy, and we know that trying to put our natural desires to death and living after our Lord’s example is not easy. How do we find consolation in it? Look at 2 Corinthians 1:9–10,

“But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.”

This life is our disappointment because, ultimately, we die. But the comfort we receive is that we can trust in the mercy of God to raise the dead and deliver us from sin. In fact, the disappointment that we have in this life is necessary in order for us to look forward to the next. It’s necessary so we don’t trust in ourselves, in our own abilities, and in our pride. It’s to help us rather look to God, the Father of all mercies and God of all comfort.

Now, I’d like you to read carefully through Psalm 86:1–17,

1  Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me: for I am poor and needy. 2 Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee. 3 Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily. 4 Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. 5 For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. 6 Give ear, O LORD, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. 7 In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me. 8   Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works. 9 All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name. 10 For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone. 11 Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. 12 I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore. 13 For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. 14 O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul; and have not set thee before them. 15 But thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth. 16 O turn unto me, and have mercy upon me; give thy strength unto thy servant, and save the son of thine handmaid. 17 Shew me a token for good; that they which hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me.

The psalmist desires to learn God’s way, to walk in His truth, to praise Him, and to fear His name because God had helped him. He focuses his attention on his thanks for God’s mercy and forgiveness rather than how hard his life is. He relies on God’s strength for his salvation, and he was comforted.

The conclusion of the whole matter…

The lesson I learned from this study, then, is that we need to refocus our lives on God’s priorities and to fit the rest of our daily activities around this foundation. Our mortal existence needs to be kept in perspective with God’s eternal purpose. With this in mind, we can accept suffering and disappointment as part of His moulding hand working in our lives to ensure we look to Him for strength, that we look to Him for mercy, forgiveness, and salvation.

Christ said of discipleship in Matthew 16:24, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever shall save his life will lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” There’s no mention of a comfortable lifestyle and pleasure. Committing to follow Christ costs us and allows us to fellowship in his suffering if by any means we might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.

Armed with this understanding and this hope, when the cares of this life are increasing, and we find a multitude of thoughts weighing us down, we must remind ourselves of the true priorities, and delight in the consolation of our God.

For those who enjoy poetry, to close, I’d like to share this one I found by John Oxenham:

LORD, when on my bed I lie,
Sleepless, unto Thee I’ll cry;
When my brain works over much,
Stay the wheels with Thy soft touch.

Just a quiet thought of Thee,
And of Thy sweet charity,—
Just a little prayer, and then
I will turn to sleep again.¹