The God Of All Comfort

Do you have a hard time accepting gifts from others?  How about from God?

I remember the first time the prayer of Jabez came to my attention in 1 Chronicles 4:10.  As you’re reading through a seemingly monotonous list of names of the clans of Judah, suddenly you come to his prayer.  Jabez prays:

“‘Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory!  Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.’  And God granted his request.”

I have to admit one of my first thoughts was:  That seems like a selfish prayer!  But is it really?  Does God not want to give wonderful gifts to His children?  So why should we not ask?  Don’t our kids ask us for things?  And since we who believe in Jesus are children of the Most High God, don’t you think He wants to bless us with all good things?

Still, thoughts swirled through my head:  I don’t really need anything more.  After all, Jesus already did so much for me.  He died an excruciating death on the cross so that I could be set free.  He’s forgiven me for all the dumb stuff that I did growing up.  Nothing else is needed…

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Years ago when our son Jeffrey with cerebral palsy was still quite young, the time came when my husband and I finally came to the realization that we needed to get him a power wheelchair.  We had been hopeful that he would not be needing a wheelchair at all, but after awhile it became clear that we were hindering his progress instead of helping it.

Then came the problem of transporting it as we only had our SUV – and we certainly couldn’t lift it up into the back door!  So we began looking into wheelchair accessible vans.

STICKER SHOCK!!!  As I started researching them, I discovered new vans cost approximately $45,000 – and this was over 20 years ago!  There was simply no way that was going to happen.

My research knocked me into a type of depressed state.  Even used accessible vans were way more than we could afford.  When Gary got home from work that day, I informed him I needed a “fast food fix” in order to help me feel better.  I got it – but it didn’t make me feel any better!

About a month later when I was leaving Bible study, I was heading out to my car when all of a sudden I heard my name being called from inside the church.  It was the head of the women’s ministry, and she asked me to come back inside for a minute.

She said she’d heard that we had been looking at wheelchair vans and knew we could probably use some monetary assistance.  So she had decided to contact the Good Samaritan Fund at our church to see about helping us get the van.

“Linda, take it,” she said.

I was speechless and headed home in a fog.  I had no idea how much they were willing to give, but even before my husband arrived home that day I knew I couldn’t do it.  After all, we weren’t destitute; and certainly there were so many other people who could use it more than we could.  When the head of the Fund called me later that afternoon asking how he could help, I told him:  “No, thank you.”

But afterwards the questions started hounding me:  Am I turning down an offer of help that perhaps the Lord has put in our path?  Did He really want to bless us with this, and I turned it down – in effect snubbing His graciousness?

It’s hard to know sometimes, isn’t it?  But God’s love surpasses our confusion.  He provided another opportunity months later, which I’ll write about in a bit.

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Jacob in the Old Testament is probably remembered most for his life of trickery and deception.  He certainly didn’t live a very God-honoring life, yet didn’t hesitate to ask God to bless him later in his years.  (You can find his story scattered throughout Genesis 25-50.)

First he, stole the birthright and blessing from his twin brother Esau and then fled to his uncle Laban’s house after he heard Esau was planning on killing him once their father died.  He ended up serving under Laban for about 20 years.

While serving under Laban, Jacob ended up being a victim of deceit himself.  First, after 7 years of service Jacob’s uncle Laban tricked him into marrying his eldest daughter Leah instead of his love, Rachel.  Laban then made Jacob work another 7 years before he would allow him to marry Rachel.  Laban also attempted to cheat Jacob out of his wages.

But Jacob turned the tables on his uncle after serving his 20 years.  He tricked Laban into giving him his desired choice of wages – speckled and spotted sheep and goats – by stripping back the branches of poplar, almond, and plane trees and placing them at the watering troughs where the strongest animals came to drink and mate.  In this way, Jacob ended up with a large amount of cattle.