Much of EA’s efforts are in the midst of brokenness, which can be traced back to the fall of man in Genesis chapter 3. When seeking to find personal as well as ministerial encouragement, the answer is always to look to the Word of God.
Recently, I ran across the following verse:
“When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.” (Psalm 94:19)
19th century theologian Albert Barnes made the following comments regarding the passage:
“However much the psalmist might be disturbed by other thoughts, yet here he found rest and peace. In God – in his character, in his law, in his government – he had an unfailing source of consolation; and whatever trouble he might have from the cares of life, and from the evil imaginings in his own mind, yet here his soul found repose.”
It is also interesting to note that the term “consolations” is also used in Isaiah 66:11-13 to describe the comfort a nursing infant finds in its mother’s arms. What a powerful image of the comfort we should find in our Creator!
Robert Louis Stevenson tells the story of a storm that caught a vessel off a rocky coast and threatened to drive it and its passengers to destruction. In the midst of the terror, one daring man, contrary to orders, went to the deck, made a dangerous passage to the pilot house and saw the steerman, lashed fast at his post of holding the wheel unwaveringly, and inch by inch, turning the ship out, once more, to sea. The pilot saw the watcher and smiled. Then, the daring passenger went below and gave out a note of cheer: “I have seen the face of the pilot, and he smiled. All is well.”
We can find consolation that “All is well” when we remember our pilot, our heavenly Father, holds firmly the steering wheel of our life’s ship in His grasp. As a result, we can echo the lyrics of the hymn “It is well with my soul:”
“When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.”
“They who have passed through honest doubt without making shipwreck of their faith attain to a confidence and assurance regarding the truth of Christianity which nothing can shake or weaken. Their faith before was a sapling which had never felt a breeze, whereas now it is an oak which has been nursed into strength amid furious storms. They will feel that it was worth all the disquiet they suffered to attain to the firm peace which they now enjoy.” – The Bible Illustrator
