Steps to Bring Comfort to our Hearts (1)
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.—Matt. 5:4
Ways we labour to comfort our hearts.
(1) There must be a search into the heart for the grounds of our trouble. Oftentimes Christians are troubled, but they cannot tell from where. They must search the heart honestly to get to the bottom of it and see if there be not some Achan in the camp, some sin in the heart. Search your hearts thoroughly; what sin lies there unrepented of, and for which you have not been humbled.
(2) When you have found out your sin, give it vent by confession of it to God, and in some cases to others.
(3) When we have done so, consider what promises and comforts, in the word of God that are fitted to that condition. For we can be in no condition but there are comforts for it and promises fitted to yield comfort. We ought to be skilful and well seen in the word of God, that we may store up comforts beforehand. Those comforts do not, for the most part, hold out in the day of adversity, which were not procured in the day of prosperity. It is not wisdom to learn religion when we should need it. Let us be good cultivators for our souls, by storing up comforts out of the word of God. There are some promises of a more general use, fitted for all sorts of grievances. How many promises and comforts are there in that one promise, 'All things shall work together for the good, to them that love God' (Rom. 8:28). Those things that are worst shall work together. As in a clock the wheels go several ways, but all join to make the clock strike. So in the carriage and ordering of things, one passage crosses another, but in the issue we shall be able to say, I found God turning all things for my good; and I could not have been without such a cross, such an affliction. God's promises, well digested, will arm the soul with confidence, that it shall be able to put to any trouble that can arise from Satan or our own hearts.
(1) There must be a search into the heart for the grounds of our trouble. Oftentimes Christians are troubled, but they cannot tell from where. They must search the heart honestly to get to the bottom of it and see if there be not some Achan in the camp, some sin in the heart. Search your hearts thoroughly; what sin lies there unrepented of, and for which you have not been humbled.
(2) When you have found out your sin, give it vent by confession of it to God, and in some cases to others.
(3) When we have done so, consider what promises and comforts, in the word of God that are fitted to that condition. For we can be in no condition but there are comforts for it and promises fitted to yield comfort. We ought to be skilful and well seen in the word of God, that we may store up comforts beforehand. Those comforts do not, for the most part, hold out in the day of adversity, which were not procured in the day of prosperity. It is not wisdom to learn religion when we should need it. Let us be good cultivators for our souls, by storing up comforts out of the word of God. There are some promises of a more general use, fitted for all sorts of grievances. How many promises and comforts are there in that one promise, 'All things shall work together for the good, to them that love God' (Rom. 8:28). Those things that are worst shall work together. As in a clock the wheels go several ways, but all join to make the clock strike. So in the carriage and ordering of things, one passage crosses another, but in the issue we shall be able to say, I found God turning all things for my good; and I could not have been without such a cross, such an affliction. God's promises, well digested, will arm the soul with confidence, that it shall be able to put to any trouble that can arise from Satan or our own hearts.
Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
Sibbes's Last Two Sermons: First Sermon, Works, vol. 7, pp. 343-45
Banner of Truth has granted permission for the use of this material.
Sibbes's Last Two Sermons: First Sermon, Works, vol. 7, pp. 343-45
Banner of Truth has granted permission for the use of this material.
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