This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your word has given me life.
—Psalm 119:50 (NKJV)
The words of God comforted the psalmist. They encouraged him in whatever he faced. The psalmist said God’s words had given him life. What was life to him? Life to the psalmist was pleasing God so that he could receive God’s love. This was His comfort.
What is comfort to you in your affliction? Is it the same as the psalmist? There is a difference for you as a believer in Christ. You have received the grace of Jesus the psalmist did not have. The days of the law—when keeping God’s commandments was the only way to find some comfort— have passed away. Jesus is the Word that gives us life. Life to you is not living to earn God’s comfort and love. Life to you is receiving the comfort and love of God that Jesus Christ has purchased for you.
“Now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit” (Romans 7:6, NLT).
If we try to please God by “obeying the letter of the law,” we end up defeated by our own attempts at goodness. We end up serving God with our actions and not with our hearts. There is no lasting comfort to be found in our own efforts. Jesus was the One who pleased God on our behalf. We come to God on the merit of Jesus’ perfect work to give us the right standing with God. We have no goodness without Jesus. We serve God living by faith in the Holy Spirit. God is working in us to give us the desire and the power to do what pleases Him (Philippians 2:13).
What is your real comfort in your affliction—whether it is sickness, painful circumstances, or financial issues? Your real comfort is the truth of God’s Word that you receive by faith in your heart. For the psalmist, his comfort in his affliction was found in pleasing God. For you as a believer, your comfort is found in the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Jesus, who had no sin, became our sin so we might receive the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus has born our suffering. He has carried our sorrows. He was afflicted by God for us. Our sins became His. Our illnesses became His. Our pain became His. He was wounded and bruised for our healing. He gave Himself. His precious blood has made us whole (Isaiah 53:4-5).
Jesus did not partially bear your suffering and sorrow. He did not partially bear your sin and sickness. He carried the full weight of your debt. He took the punishment for you to have peace with God. Your comfort—your peace is found in His perfect work for your sins, your suffering, your sorrow, your sickness, and all the things that resulted from Adam’s sin. Your comfort in Jesus is freedom from sin and all its destruction. You lack nothing in His perfect and finished work of grace.
Your true comfort in your affliction is His life over death, blessing over curse, and healing over sickness. The Gospel of Grace speaks wholeness of life to you. The God of peace sanctifies you completely in spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
You may not have yet experienced freedom from your affliction. But just because you have not yet experienced it, does not mean it is untrue. There is not only comfort in what you face. There is life and freedom in Christ from what you face.
You receive God’s Word in your heart and live its truth by faith. His words are life to all who find them. They are healing to all our flesh (Proverbs 4:22)! Jesus is our comfort and deliverer! The power of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56). In Christ, you have died to the law and are no longer held captive by its power (Romans 7:6). Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God in us that overcomes the power of sin and all its destruction.
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19, NKJV).
We have nothing to give but everything to receive.
© 2024 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2024/05/my-deliverer.html
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