a SERVE lesson
Focal Passage Outline and Scripture Passages:
Know the Source of Comfort (2 Cor. 1:1-3)
Be a Channel of God’s Comfort (2 Cor. 1:4-7)
Offer Comfort Through Prayer (2 Cor. 1:8-11)
Bible Passage:
2 Corinthians 1:1-11
What This Lesson Is About:
This lesson is about the support we can give to others who are grieving.
How This Lesson Can Impact Your Life:
This lesson can help you minister to those who grieve out of your own experience of God’s comfort and through your prayers.
Psalm 119:49
Remember the word to Your servant, Upon which You have caused me to hope.
–NKJ
The writer of this verse of Psalm calls for God to remember. Remember what? Remember the very own words of God that he had promised that caused hope. Hope for what? Something better.
Psalm 119 is an extremely long psalm. This verse begins a new section of it. The writer expresses his history of learning about God’s laws and the promised benefits of living an upright life. Apparently, he isn’t feeling all the satisfaction that he thought he should. He has not only been a student of God’s teaching, but has tried his best to apply those teachings and demonstrate the relevance of scriptural teaching. Still he calls for God to remember him.
The truth about the Bible is that its a book that teaches us how to live here on earth. God tells us what kind of things to do to give him honor, the blessings he will give for doing it, and the curses if we don’t. OK, I’m doing that God, so where’s the blessings, remember? Sometimes no word is good word. God already placed us on a globe that is fruitful, and capable to produce all we need for food shelter, clothes and recreation. It’s up to each of us to find our own work, and satisfaction out of it.
The Bible teaches how to get along with people. In a nutshell, treat people with goodness and respect and it will come back to you. Treat them badly, and you get nasty things back. Probably the true test of God’s love is actually putting it to the test and loving others. It’s easy to love a couple of people, even easy to like a few more. As for the rest it might be said that they are all liked in a way. A way off, and for most of them the farther the better.
I think the psalmist had a little of this attitude. As I read through his words in the verses that follow, he seems to have real joy in describing his joy and gladness in his relationship to God. He makes some statements about his unhappiness over the evil people who don’t honor God. Evil people who would bind him, and for what? Just being a nice, Godly guy? Remember me God. Remember your promises.
Why is it that a person tries to love, honor, obey, and do all the right things that God has meant to be done, and there are still people in the world who hate, and want to do that person harm. Here’s a secret. They don’t hate you. They hate God. They may not ever have known God, but they see him living in your life and can’t stand to see the blessings you have. To them it just is not normal to be happy.
The evil people see a believer from the outside, doing all the same kinds of things that they do, but somehow things just go your way. God blesses you. Even worse than that, when things don’t go so well, the believer gets back up, dusts himself off, and says, “Praise God anyway.” To them it just isn’t normal. On the outside, it does seem wierd. They don’t see the inside. Life isn’t a matter of what you do, but your attitude while doing it.
God does remember. If we stop and think about, even on our worst of days, we can find blessings. Count them and see. If you just can’t think of any, it’s time to get in touch with that inner spark of love for God. There are plenty of times when we get knocked down in life, whether by our own doing or at the hand of someone else. Being knocked down is never fun, but it’s the getting up that makes it all worth while. Remember me God, and help me up.
“God is our Refuge and Strength, a very present Help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1
Now for something a little different. A devotional message that has already been written, and in the form of a song. Read the verse, actually read the entire Psalm 46, it isn’t very long. Then let the words of Martin Luther comment on it.
Words & Music:
Martin Luther, 1529 translated from German to
English by Frederic H. Hedge, 1853.
This song has been called “the greatest hymn of the greatest man of the
greatest period of German history” and the “Battle Hymn of the
Reformation.”
This hymn was sung at the funeral of American president Dwight
Eisenhower at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, March
1969.
Frederic H. Hedge (1805-1890)
<blockquote>
In 1720 a remarkable revival began in a town in Moravia. Jesuits
opposed it, and the meetings were prohibited. Those who still assembled
were seized and imprisoned in stables and cellars. At David Nitschmann’s
house, where a hundred and fifty persons gathered, the police broke in
and seized the books. Not dismayed, the congregation struck up the
stanzas of Luther’s hymn,
Twenty heads of families were for this sent to jail, including Nitschmann,
who was treated with special severity. He finally escaped, fled to the
Moravians at Herrnhut, became a bishop, and afterwards joined the
Wesleys in 1735 in their expedition to Savannah, Georgia.<br>
Sankey, p. 106
</blockquote>
1. A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
2. Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
3. And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
4. That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.
Luke 23:27
And a great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him.
–NKJ
Jesus was on his last walk. The one that led him to die. A great multitude of people were there to follow and watch the spectacle. One group set themselves apart. Certainwomen of Jerusalem. In other places we find out a few more details about them. They are mentioned in both Matthew 27:55 and Mark 15:40, where we learn they included at leastMary Magdalene, the mother of James and Jose, and the mother of Salome, but many more. They stood at a distance. While others there had their own agendas, purposes, and expectations, these women had tender hearts and compassion.
The disciples all fled the night before. At least John was around for some of the ordeal. Others may also have been witness to the crucifixion, but only from a safe distance.
Sometimes the trauma of an event can only be gone through when we put emotional distance in the picture. Though we want the circumstance to be different, it can be out of our control. We want to be right there and change things. Make things better or easier. Distance can help deaden the raw nerves of our emotion, especially when nothing can be done to change things.
The women stayed as close as they dared. It was a safety measure for their own benefit. Nothing could be done at this point to stop the events. Just their presence was enough. Jesus knew they were there, and of their concern. That’s the best thing that they, or anybody could have done to help.
Life has many tragic moments. A loved one in a life threatening accident or illness. All you can do is to be there for them. Events sometimes don’t go well and conditions get worse. The best ministry we can do for that fading loved one is to be there and provide the comfort that our presence might bring.
It’s our time to be compassionate for that person. Our sorrow and desire is great, just as with these women followers. They had their dark moments of grief, but God still used them and blessed in the days that soon followed.
God will comfort you too, but now is the time to be strong and compassionate for those who are in need and in situations that are beyond any human control.
Background Passage: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
Lesson Passage: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
BIBLICAL TRUTH
Christians can be comforted in facing death because they have reason for genuine hope.
LIFE IMPACT
To help adults be comforted by Christian hope as they face death
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