Comfort

I John 4:24

Loneliness is a terrible feeling. A person does not always have to be alone to feel lonely. Sometimes it comes from a perceived exclusion from the group. However, there are those who spend the majority of their days without human contact. To these people, a phone call can feel like Christmas. Unfortunately, our elderly are prone to end their days like this. As Christians, we are never truly alone.

---

Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.

I John 3:24

---

Relationships are a two-way street. If a person never invests in a relationship, they will never truly reap the benefits of that relationship. Many teens today feel lonely and isolated because they are. They have no real social interactions because everything is done digitally. There are people in their lives, but they choose not to have a real relationship. John told us that the key to abiding in Jesus is to obey His commandments. If we are to obey His commandments, we must read His word. We must also pray that He will reveal areas in our life where we need to grow. This is our investment into the relationship.

Next John wrote, "and He in him...". I said that a relationship is a two-way street, and this is Jesus's investment in the relationship. He abides in us. This is more than just the Holy Spirit dwelling in us at salvation. The more we become like Jesus, the more His presence is felt within us. We will find that we can be physically isolated from everyone we know, and yet feel the comfort of knowing that Jesus is with us. He makes His presence known to us.

Someone who does not know Jesus as their Savior might say this sounds hokey. If not for the last part of this verse, most people who do know Jesus as their Savior would never believe it either. The evidence that we can abide in Jesus, and He will abide in us comes from the fact that He sends His spirit to live within us. Not only is the presence of the Holy Spirit evidence in itself, but He (the Spirit) creates a desire and longing within us that wants to draw closer to Jesus. While we may decide to not act upon it, the desire is still there. When we do act upon that desire, and we abide in Jesus, we get the peace that comes from feeling His presence in our lives as well. We get to feel the comfort of not going through this world alone.

Father, we struggle so much in this life because we do not take You up on Your Word. We are told that if we will draw near to You, that You will draw near to us (James 4:8). I pray that the desire to be closer to You would grow within each of us. Help us abide in Jesus.