Daily Devotionals

'Every Day Light' with Selwyn Hughes

Devotional: May 17th

For Reading and Meditation:
     Isaiah 51:1-16

We spend one last day meditating on Jesus' words: "Blessed [or happy] are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Facing negative feelings such as grief, sorrow, hurt and emotional pain is essential if we are to know our Lord's purpose for our lives. When we are willing to go down into the hurt and feel it, then something glorious and transformative happens - we experience the loving comfort and compassion of our Lord. "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." Comforted? By whom? By the Triune God. He comes alongside us in our pain, and through the comfort He pours into our beings, enables us to become more sensitive to Him, to ourselves, and to others. After a lifetime of dealing with people and their problems, I have no hesitation in saying that the happiest people on earth are those who have been hurt but have had those hurts healed through the power of Christ's transforming love. They are what someone has called "wounded healers". Having been healed themselves, they go out to heal others. Going down into the pain of hurt feelings is not a very pleasant journey, but coming back from it with the comfort of God in your soul is an experience that is positively exhilarating and enriching. You return, not only with a new sensitivity in your soul, but with a new potential for ministering to others. Remember this: great sorrow leads to great happiness - and without the sorrow, there can be no genuine happiness. This might sound to many like a contradiction in terms. It is not a contradiction, but a paradox - and a blessed one at that!

O Father, I take again this second prescription for happiness and ask that You will enable me to take the "medicine", not just today, but every day of my life. Then I will be whole - truly whole. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.