Bible Study The Work of the Holy Spirit: Comfort.

[Tenchi]

John 14:16-17
16 And I will pray to the Father, and he shall give you another
Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive,
because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you
know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you.
​

I was talking with a Christian woman recently about her struggle with acute anxiety. She was desperate to be free of the misery her anxiety was causing her and had finally resorted to psycho-therapeutic drugs to calm herself. She had prayed often to God to comfort her, to give her inner peace, to settle her mind and heart, but her prayers had gone unanswered. As I probed into what her expectations were of God's answer to her prayer, it became clear that what she wanted primarily was a feeling of inward peace that would descend upon her, calming the storm of anxiety blowing hard upon her soul. She knew all of the passages of Scripture that promised to her stability of mind and heart in her Maker, that spoke of Him as the Ultimate Locus of her peace, but these were of far less interest to her than having a feeling of calm within. Why wouldn't God just dissolve all of her anxiety and impose a sense of imperturbable peace upon her, as she wanted?

When Peter stepped out onto the stormy waves of the sea of Galilee, did Jesus infuse Peter with an unshakable feeling of inner calm? As Peter moved toward Jesus, did Peter's Master fill him with an indissoluble feeling of peace? No. Instead, very quickly Peter felt disturbed and grew distracted by the wind and waves tossing all about him, and the unnaturalness of what he was doing, and he grew fearful, sinking immediately beneath the waves.

What did Jesus say to Peter in response to Peter's unfortunate dunking? "O, you of little faith, why did you doubt?" Jesus didn't take any responsibility for Peter's failure to meet him on the water. He didn't admit to, nor did he apologize for, not having strengthened Peter's mind and heart sufficiently to enable Peter to walk all the way to him on the sea of Galilee. No, it was entirely Peter's fault that he had sunk into the waves.

Implied in Jesus's question to Peter, was that Peter had had no good reason to doubt. After all, Jesus had walked out to the boat in which Peter and the other disciples were travelling across the sea of Galilee and had stood nearby upon the water, amply demonstrating that such a thing could be done; he had given explicit permission to Peter to come to him on the water, and Peter had been able to take a few steps toward Jesus without sinking. As well, prior to this occasion, Peter had witnessed Jesus doing many other incredible, miraculous, supernatural things and had, therefore, an abundance of reason to be confident about walking out safely to Jesus on the stormy sea of Galilee.

It was to Peter's mind, to his reason and knowledge, and to his personal experience of Jesus's power that Jesus pointed in remarking on Peter's doubt. As far as Jesus was concerned, Peter had had no good cause to sink; everything that Peter had needed to remain on top of the water, he had possessed. If only Peter had settled himself firmly in his knowledge and personal experience of Jesus, and kept his eyes fixed upon Jesus, ignoring his rowdy circumstances, Peter's experience would have been a lot drier.

The born-again Christian has a big "leg up" on the pre-Calvary Peter in that they have within them the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9-14; 1 John 4:13; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, etc.) who "brings to remembrance" the truth of God's word (provided the Christian has been studying it), convicting them of its truth, its trustworthiness, and demonstrating its cleansing, renewing, and transforming power in their lives (John 16:8-14; John 14:18-17, 26, 1 Corinthians 2:10-16). The Holy Spirit encourages the believer in the midst of life's "storms" to stand by faith on the truth of God revealed to them in the Bible and on their personal experience of Him in their daily living, from these things reasoning to the conclusion that God can be thoroughly trusted in whatever circumstances a believer may find him/herself.

When, then, the believer, overcome by pain, fear and doubt, begins to sink beneath the "waves" of trouble, it isn't the hand of Jesus that pulls them up, or a sudden, overwhelming feeling of calm that sustains them, but the convicting, illuminating "voice" of the Spirit, reminding them of the eternal truth of God and their daily experience of His goodness, love and power that they enjoy in, and through, the life and work of the Holy Spirit. In his comfort of the believer, the Spirit will urge them to fix their gaze upon God, upon Christ, and upon God's word, remembering their own knowledge of, and history with, both of these things and reasoning from them to a present, well-settled, peace-giving confidence in God.

Isaiah 26:3-4
3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

Hebrews 12:1-3
1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Romans 15:4
4 For whatever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Psalm 119:165
165 Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17
13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.
14 To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15 So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.
16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,
17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.

Philippians 4:7
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 9:6
6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace...

Colossians 3:15-16
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you...

The Holy Spirit's comfort of the believer, then, is not first and foremost a feeling of peace, of inner calm, that he imparts to the disturbed child of God but the truth about God, about Christ, reminding the believer, too, of the future hope of eternal glory that awaits them on the far side of the grave. The "peace of God ruling in the believer's heart" is the Holy Spirit, not a feeling, who, as he governs the believer, fills them more and more with himself, producing in them the "fruit" of peace, comforting them with truth and promises of God and his own holy presence within them.

Is this you? Are you a professing believer who lives daily in the "peace that passes all understanding"? Or are you like the modern, western unbeliever is, mired constantly in free-floating anxiety, neurotic, obsessed and despairing? I hope not. Nothing could be more unlike the Christian life described in the Bible than such living. If , though, this is your experience and you believe yourself to be a genuine, born-again child of God understand that the absence of the Spirit's comfort in your life is a very serious "red flag" that something is very wrong between you and your Maker.

Galatians 5:22-24
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

 

[Tenchi]

I mentioned a woman suffering under acute anxiety in the OP who knew much of what is explained in the OP and who prayed very desperately to God for relief from her anxiety but who didn't, she believed, receive any comfort from Him. Why was this? Is God not the God of All Comfort, as the Bible declares Him to be (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)? Yes, He is. Is God not full of lovingkindness and compassion for His own (Psalm 36:7; James 5:11)? Yes, of course He is. So, then, why was He silent in response to the anxious woman's plea for relief from her fear?

Well, part of the problem, aside from her wanting a feeling of peace rather than the Prince of Peace, was that her life was crowded with sin. Not gross, obvious sin like adultery, or theft, or murder, but sin that could be mostly hidden from view, particularly a deep, abiding anger and resentment toward her husband. So justified did she think herself to be in her bitterness toward her spouse, and given new cause daily to be bitter toward him, she could not see that her bitterness was a barrier to God answering her prayer. Her husband was, in her view, a childish, idiotic, and neurotic man, who had to be controlled and commanded, not respected and followed.

And so, when this sinful woman banged on heaven's door for relief from her anxiety, she got no answer.

1 Peter 3:12
12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.

Hebrews 12:14-15
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

Psalm 66:18
18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

In tandem with her bitterness, this woman was also making a steady diet of anxiety-inducing YouTube videos full of conspiracy theories linked with Bible prophecy that warned of rapidly approaching world-wide, End Times catastrophe. My wife and I call these wretched videos "disaster porn." Again, the woman in question could not see how her taking in of these frightful videos on a daily basis figured into her acute anxiety. They were, after all, connected to biblical prophecy and this sanctified the videos entirely, as far as she was concerned. But one cannot feed on a steady stream of death, demons and doom and remain inwardly stable. Garbage in, garbage out. And so, Scripture commands:

Philippians 4:8
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Psalm 1:1-3
1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.
3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

Hebrews 12:1-3
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

How about you? Are you pleading with God for inner peace from a life fouled by sin? Are you acting to undermine a stable mind and heart by the content of that upon which you're focusing? Don't be like the woman in the OP!

 

[Tenchi]

Bump.