But God Comforts Us- Lent 4, 2021

“We were harassed at every turn– conflicts on the outside, fears within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us.” (2 Corinthians 7:5-6 )

How anyone can read that Scripture and not see that the Bible is still relevant to our everyday is beyond me. Christians are—in fact—harassed at every turn. It ranges from genuine persecution in some countries where faith in Jesus Christ is punishable by death … to areas of the world in which Christians face imprisonment in reeducation camps … to demands by authoritarian governments to compromise our beliefs … all the way to the subtle–yet significant–situations of being deplatformed, shadow-banned, or sent to the back of Google’s search results, hidden so far down as to not be seen and therefore rendered unable to engage in commerce or simple evangelism.

Being “too Christian” can get one fired from a job
or force one to be silent out of fear that will happen.

These things are evidence of conflicts from the outside and sad to say, it results in timid Christians, those burdened by understandable fears from within that undermine the Church overall. We’ve become a Church that cowers in corners instead of standing boldly, proclaiming in public unashamed, offering our witness, a testimony to the difference our Risen Savior makes. We’ve become a Church that compromises Biblical truth instead of standing firm on the Word of God. We do it because we don’t want the fierce blowback for being too Christian, too fundamentalist, too orthodox, too catholic, and too narrow.

All this harassment for what?
For proclaiming good news?
Stop and think about that.
It’s time for the Church to see that God still comforts the beleaguered!

Why does the world fear professing Christians so much? Why are we such a threat when all we’re doing is proclaiming a Savior for a problem we cannot address ourselves. Were it not for God…as we’re examining in the 2021 Lent devotions…the entire world would be without hope.

Take stock, my friends, of the world’s great animosity and hatred
shown toward those who stand to cause the least real harm. And ask yourself why.

We thank You Lord that You comfort those who are downcast and Your comfort is there when we most need it. We praise You for Your great mercy and kindness, Your love and forgiveness, and thank You for setting an example for us, Lord Jesus. We see in Your life how to persevere all the way to a glorious finish and in You and by Your Spirit may we each be strengthened in the knowledge of You. We are grateful You have walked this path ahead of us and You are even now beside us as we walk it too. Thank You Lord Jesus. Amen.

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If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the 2022 Lent Devotionals automatically. Or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so. Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings. You don’t want to miss this encounter with God to prepare your heart for Easter! Understanding that prior years’ devotionals continue to minister, you may want to have access to a full series ahead of time:

Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.