“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.”  (Isaiah 40:1-2)

This time of year has special meaning to me.  It was 8 years ago now that I came back into the sheepfold.  I was 32 years old and I felt so lost.  My first marriage had fallen apart and I was at the end of my own way.  When God breathed his spirit into my flesh that day it gave me hope that my life was now on a good path.

Isaiah 40:1-2 truly came to mean something in my life 8 years ago.  When I repented of my sin and Christ came into my heart I understood that my path was now secure.  This came to me by way of revelation.  As I read the Bible the Lord began to assure me that my way was secure in him.  I had nothing but God and yet I was completely satisfied.

I remember having a vision in the early days of my salvation.  In it I saw myself aboard a lonely train.  It was sort of like the trains that the Nazi Germans used to herd the Jews onto for their journey toward the death camps.

I remember seeing myself aboard one of these trains, but I was being set free.  The death journey had come to an end and I was being released into freedom.  I remember seeing my family in this dream that I had not seen in a long, long time.  We were reunited and it was sweet.

Before Christ we were all headed to the death camps.  Our sins committed us to this course.  Only in Jesus are we set free.  He delivers us from evil and our steps become new.  No longer are we bound to death because of our sins but we are set free to live a life of freedom.  All the blessings that come from a life of righteousness become ours; by no strength of our own but by the blessed grace of our God.  We are renewed and daily we are comforted by our God.  Before Christ I had no hope, but in Christ my hope is renewed daily.

My prayer for you today is that you will rise into a new hope for your life and that you will be comforted by Holy Spirit as you commit your way to Christ more fully.  And as you do I pray for the blessings of the Lord to overlap you on your journey in him.

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