Interesting Distinction

As I read the Puritans I keep running up on two terms they use that I find a real aid to my understanding and prayer.  The words are "comfort," and "ease."  

In most of the works I've read, comfort is always used in the context of affliction and/or distress.  It is what God provides for us to persevere in our faithfulness.  This comfort may be found in scripture, it may be found in prayer, i may be found in faithful family and friends. It is, however, in the writings of the Puritans, found in times of difficulty.

Ease on the other hand is that condition which is a danger to the believer.  When we are at 'ease"we do not sense any challenge of affliction.  We are prosperous and contented with right where we are.  This is a very dangerous place.  Ease encourages a weakening of the believer in their duties.  Ease encourages a lessening of our watchfulness.  Ease encourages a lessening of our intentional growth in His likeness.  

Ease is a dangerous place.  Comfort is a difficult place.

Ease is when we forget we are engaged in a continuous battle with the world, the flesh and the devil.  We let our guard slip just a little bit.  We don't pray quite so often or passionately.  We are not in the Word quite so often.  We have a deceptive sense that everything is A-OK.  God is in His heaven and all is right with the world.

It is a hard thing when our ease is interrupted, when we have grown just lax enough for our loving Father to press us with His discipline.  We are shocked and dismayed.  We may grumble and murmur.  We can grow resentful and sinfully fearful.

It is here where we must seek His comfort and not His comfort alone but His instruction.  there is always something to learn when we are being disciplined.  Sometimes discovering the point of the discipline is comforting - sometimes it drives us to Him.

I would encourage you, if you are at ease, to consider the dangers.

I would encourage you, if you are in distress to not wait for it to drive you to Him but go to Him now and regularly.  Energize yourself in your duties, cling to His promise, look to Him for all things.


2 Corinthians 1:3-5 ESV
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, [4] who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. [5] For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.

MS
msanders.bc@gmail.com

This and That – Suffering 083112

Eph 3:14-19  For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,  (15)  from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,  (16)  that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  (17)  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  (18)  may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,  (19)  and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ok, read this verse s l o w l y.  Read it again.

Now, “for this reason.”      Now read Eph. 3:3-13.    Wow!

Eph 3:13  So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

I subscribe to a Christian Professional’s Prayer page on LinkedIn.  To tell you the truth, it’s a hard link to handle. There are so many brothers and sisters all over who are suffering and struggling in, at least what to me, are horrible circumstances. 

Now email sand posts are really poor ways to “communicate,” but in reading these posts I can feel the pain and anxiety.  Maybe it’s a misspelled word, a letter missing or confusing grammar but there are signs of the struggle they are in.

Now – looking at this passage – especially verse 13 I have to wonder if part of God’s providence in our hard times is for the benefit of others.  I really feel it must be or why else does He so intimately record the struggles of the motley crew that went before us.  If David, a king and God’s anointed can lay on His bed in utter anxiety – why not me?  If Paul can suffer as he did, why not me?  If Job can be subjected to all he went through, why not me?

Ok – I’m taking this kind of out its context but I really believe that: 

these things took place as examples for us,

that we might not desire evil as they did.  1Co 10:6

I am also drawn to that part of Hebrew 11 we rarely really consider:

Heb 11:36-40  Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.  (37)  They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated--  (38)  of whom the world was not worthy--wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.  (39)  And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised,  (40)  since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

NO !!!!  I am not saying, “It could be worse,” no way.  But what I am saying is that if God was faithful to them through all of this – He will not fail us!

There is no “upside,” to being stoned, sawn in two, or killed with the sword – unless we really hold on the hope of heaven! 

In Triumphing Over sinful Fear, John Flavel addresses our attempt to “reason” our way through troubles – even life threatening ones:

“This carnal reason is the thing that puts us into such confusion of mind. (1) It quarrels with the promises and shakes our confidence in them (Ex. 5:22–23). (2) It limits God’s power and assigns boundaries to it (Ps. 78:20, 41). (3) It draws desperate conclusions from providential appearances (1 Sam. 27:1). (4) It sets us upon sinful courses in an attempt to save ourselves from danger (Isa. 30:15–16). (5) It divides our thoughts and flows into our hearts (Ps. 94:16).”

Flavel, John (2011-12-27). Triumphing Over Sinful Fear (Puritan Treasures for Today) (Kindle Locations 1293-1296). Reformation Heritage Books. Kindle Edition.

This is one tough book written at a time when believers had suffered so many agonies and privations.  No, not by Rome in ancient days but in the 17^th century.

“The matter is debated between faith and fear. Oh, what endless work does their fear impose upon their faith—to solve all the “buts” and “ifs” it raises!”    

Flavel, John (2011-12-27). Triumphing Over Sinful Fear (Puritan Treasures for Today) (Kindle Locations 1325-1326). Reformation Heritage Books. Kindle Edition.

“Who enabled Christians in the past to endure such things? They loved their lives. They sensed pain just like you. They had the same thoughts and fears. Yet God carried them through it all. He can do the same for you.”

Flavel, John (2011-12-27). Triumphing Over Sinful Fear (Puritan Treasures for Today) (Kindle Locations 1468-1469). Reformation Heritage Books. Kindle Edition.

I recommend this book as a challenge to that fear which God would have us refuse.

Paul wrote:

Eph 3:13  So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

And I ask, “For whose glory (referring to other believers as Paul does) is my present suffering?” Who shall be encouraged, strengthen perhaps even led to the Lord through the Spirit by the suffering I now endues for His sake?

We all want to read or hear about a Job, but few of us (me included) ever want to be one!