“I’ll pour robust well-being into her like a river,
    the glory of nations like a river in flood.
You’ll nurse at her breasts,
    nestle in her bosom,
    and be bounced on her knees.
As a mother comforts her child,
    so I’ll comfort you.
    You will be comforted in Jerusalem.” (The Message).

The above words take me back to Isaiah 40. We end where we started:

”Comfort, comfort my people,
    says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
    and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed,
    that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
    double for all her sins.” (1,2).

In Isaiah’s vision of the future, Jerusalem will enjoy ”peace…like a river”, ”the wealth of nations like a flooding stream”, and a mother-like ”comfort” (NIV). God’s blessing will be lavish and abundant.

We should also realise that His ”comfort” is real, and it is not to be hoarded:

”Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,  who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.  And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-7).

I seem to remember an article I read, written by someone – a believer – who admitted that he would go looking for comfort in pale substitutes for God. Then, he said, he learned, in his moments of pain, to pray, ‘Holy Spirit comfort me’, and he found God’s help to be real.

We can all go searching in the wrong places.

PRAYER: Lord, please forgive me for my feeble and futile attempts at self-medication. Rescue me from idolatry, and enable me to find all my satisfaction in you.