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Always With Us, May 1
I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
John 14:18
.
Christ desired His disciples to understand that He would not leave them
orphans. “I will not leave you comfortless,” He declared; “I will come to you.
Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because
I live, ye shall live also” (
John 14:18, 19
). Precious, glorious assurance of
eternal life! Even though He was to be absent, their relation to Him was to be
that of a child to its parent.
“At that day,” He said, “ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye
in me, and I in you” (
John 14:20
). He sought to impress the minds of the
disciples with the distinction between those who are of the world and those
who are of Christ. He was about to die, but He desired them to realize that
He would live again. And although, after His ascension, He would be absent
from them, yet by faith they might see and know Him, and He would have
the same loving interest in them that He had while with them....
The words spoken to the disciples come to us through their words. The
Comforter is ours as well as theirs, at all times and in all places, in all sorrows
and in all affliction, when the outlook seems dark and the future perplexing,
and we feel helpless and alone. These are times when the Comforter will be
sent in answer to the prayer of faith.
There is no comforter like Christ, so tender and so true. He is touched with
the feeling of our infirmities. His Spirit speaks to the heart. Circumstances
may separate us from our friends; the broad, restless ocean may roll between
us and them. Though their sincere friendship may still exist, they may be
unable to demonstrate it by doing for us that which would be gratefully re-
ceived. But no circumstances, no distance, can separate us from the heavenly
Comforter. Wherever we are, wherever we may go, He is always there, one
given in Christ’s place, to act in His stead. He is always at our right hand, to
speak soothing, gentle words; to support, sustain, uphold, and cheer.
The influence of the Holy Spirit is the life of Christ in the soul. This
Spirit works in and through everyone who receives Christ. Those who know
the indwelling of this Spirit reveal its fruit—love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith.—
The Review and Herald, October 26, 1897
.
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