Comfort in Resurrection

There are fairy tale messages about faith in God and salvation. Those messages tell us that when we are saved in Jesus Christ, all our problems will be gone and rest of our life will be like heaven. The word of God tells us, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mathew 16:24).

When we are in this world, we have to face troubles, temptations and tribulations. Certain problems come to our lives which are pre-planned by God Himself. In the word we see the life of Job, the suffering he went through, which was allowed by God. When we face these situations, God will sent His Spirit to comfort us and guide us to take the next step in life.

In the book of Ezekiel, we can see Israel’s sin in the first 16 chapters. It explains how the children of God will be taken to captivity. But Ezekiel 17 motivates the people that God is promising them that they will grow. Here it speaks about a plant which God himself plants. The book tells that the plant will produce branches and bear fruits. No matter how bad things are, God is always at work. Ezekiel is motivating the people, no need of having partnership with Egypt to go against Babylon. He tells them to be faithful to God and God is going to defeat the enemies by himself. You can’t fight your battle with the materialism, but by obeying God, God will fight your battle.

To have God with you and to fight your battles, you need to be righteous before God. It is easy to show before the world that you are faithful, but it should be shown before God, who knows your heart. Mathew 7:21 says, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my father who is in heaven”. Jesus, the Messiah is the leader of the way to eternal life. Salvation is for the repentant, not for the arrogant. To walk along with God, we need to read the word, delight in it, mediate upon it and live according to it (Psalm 1).

There are certain mysteries which happen when you truly accept Christ as your saviour. The good seed of the gospel sown in the world and sown in the heart produce wonderful effects. The mystery is that we do not know how the spirit of God, by the word makes a change in the heart. The word of God, when received in faith is in the heart a work of grace. The prophets do not live forever, but the word which they preached, is doing its work. God carries on his work insensibly and without noise, but without fail.

The amazing example is the mission and evangelism which is happening around the world. Recently I saw a video where some group of people stopping a man of God and taking the pamphlets from him and tearing it down. What amazes in these incidents are, the men of God are not having a sword, or a gun or any knife. They go with the word of God and these groups are afraid of this word. This itself is the proof that the word of God is so strong. “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). These are the incidents which God show us to increase our faith in Him.

The parable of the growing seed in Mark 4: 26-34, shows us how the Spirit works in us and also how the Spirit work to bring people to salvation. A man scatters seeds on the ground. Whether he sleeps or not, he don’t know how the seed sprouts and grows. Spiritual growth is slow as a plant. Don’t expect a new convert to have fruits of the Spirit altogether. Sower is the one who knows about the love of Christ. But behind the scene God is working to bring the people to him, which we don’t know.

Here in the world, sowing spiritual seeds leads to troubles and persecutions. Apostle Paul finds his comfort in the fact of the resurrection that Christ promised. In 2 Corinthians 5: 1-17, he tells our suffering bodies will soon be exchanged for painless glorified bodies. The difference between a grain of mustard seed and a great tree, is nothing to that between a young convert on earth and a glorified saint in heaven (John 12:24).

If you are a person who has no idea about salvation and Jesus Christ, you cannot please The Holy God who created Heaven and Earth because of your sin. Only remission from sin is shedding of innocent sinless blood. So for helping and saving the world, God came down in human form, took all our sins and died, shed the blood and gave salvation. Now, the salvation is free, but free to all who accepts this Jesus as their personal saviour. You need to have the faith in Jesus to accept him. When you accept Christ, leave worrying about the future, because as I mentioned above, you will experience a mystery which the Spirit of God does in your life. I pray that you who are reading this will experience the presence of the Spirit of God and will be guided towards the love of Christ, to live a faithful, holy life.