He who loveth a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counselor, a cheerful companion, or an effectual comforter.
~ Isaac Barrow
Grant unto us, Lord, that we may set our hope on Thy name…and open the eyes of our hearts, that we may know Thee. We beseech Thee, Lord and Master, to be our help and succour. Save those among us who are in tribulation; have mercy on the lowly; lift up the fallen; show Thyself to those in need; heal the sick; turn again the wanderers of Thy people; feed the hungry; ransom our prisoners; raise up the weak; comfort the faint-hearted. Let all nations know that Thou art God alone, and that Jesus Christ is Thy Son, and that we are Thy people and the sheep of Thy pasture. We praise Thee who art able to do these and better things than these, through Jesus Christ the High Priest and Guardian of our souls, through whom be glory and majesty to Thee, both now and throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.
~ a prayer of Clement of Rome
The superior man thinks always of virtue, the common man thinks of comfort.
~ Confucius
Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.
~ Dinah Craik
We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
~ Viktor Frankl
True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.
~ D.T. Gentry
We are more at home with our own ideas about religion—with thoughts which are more comfortable and reassuring, with a “god” who is rather like us and who can be brought into line with our own expectations. This God is domesticated—like a religious “pet” rather than the wild, untamed presence of the Almighty.
~ David Hewetson and David Miller, in Christianity Made Simple
Spirit of fire,
Paraclete, our Comforter,
you’re the Live in alive,
the Be in every creature’s being,
the Breathe in every breath on earth.
Holy Life-Giver,
Doctor of the desperate,
Healer of everyone broken past hope,
Medicine for all wounds,
Fire of love,
Joy of hearts,
fragrant Strength,
sparkling Fountain,
Protector,
Penetrator,
in you we contemplate
how God goes looking for those who are lost
and reconciles those who are at odds with him.
Break our chains!
You bring people together.
You curl clouds, whirl winds,
send rain on rocks, sing in creeks,
and turn the lush earth green.
You teach those who listen,
breathing joy and wisdom into them.
We praise you for these gifts,
Light-giver,
Sound of joy,
Wonder of being alive,
Hope of every person,
and our strongest Good.
~ “The First Fire”, by Hildegard of Bingen
Howsoever men when they sit at ease, do vainly tickle their own hearts with the wanton conceit of I know not what proportionable correspondence between their merits and their rewards, which in the trance of their high speculations, they dream that God hath measured and laid up as it were in bundles for them; we see notwithstanding by daily experience, in a number even of them that when the hour of death approacheth, when they secretly hear themselves summoned to appear and stand at the bar of that Judge, whose brightness causeth the eyes of angels themselves to dazzle, all those idle imaginations do then begin to hide their faces. To name merits then, is to lay their souls upon the rack. The memory of their own deeds is loathsome unto them. They forsake all things wherein they have put any trust and confidence. No staff to lean upon, no rest, no ease, no comfort then, but only in Christ Jesus.
~ Richard Hooker.
There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse; as I have found in traveling in a stagecoach, it is often a comfort to shift one’s position and be bruised in a new place.
~ Washington Irving
Western culture has things a little backwards right now. We think that if we had every comfort available to us, we’d be happy. We equate comfort with happiness. And now we’re so comfortable we’re miserable. There’s no struggle in our lives. No sense of adventure. We get in a car, we get in an elevator, it all comes easy. What I’ve found is that I’m never more alive than when I’m pushing and I’m in pain, and I’m struggling for high achievement, and in that struggle I think there’s a magic.
~ Dean Karnazes
Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That’s why it’s a comfort to go hand in hand.
~ Emily Kimbrough
So the Church, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, was multiplied.
~ Luke, Acts 9:31, The Bible
I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing.
~ Katherine Mansfield
What keeps so many employees back is simply unwillingness to pay the price, to make the exertion, the effort to sacrifice their ease and comfort.
~ Orison Swett Marden
If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.
~ Somerset Maugham
Lord God, … Teach me to understand that the Spirit is the Comforter, who frees me from all anxiety and fear about my own powerlessness, in order that He may work the strength of Christ in me. Amen.
~ from “Flesh and Spirit”, by Andrew Murray
Let Jesus be your teacher. He Himself was sanctified by suffering: it was in suffering that He learned full obedience. He has a wonderfully sympathetic heart. Have much intercourse with Him. Seek not your comfort from much speaking on the part of men or with men. Give Jesus the opportunity of teaching you. Have much converse with Him in solitude. (Isa. 26:16; 61:1,2; Heb. 2:10,17,18; 5:9) The Father has given you the word, the Spirit, the Lord Jesus your sanctification, in order to sanctify you: affliction and chastisement are meant to bring you to the word, to Jesus Himself, in order that He may make you partaker of His holiness. It is in fellowship with Jesus that consolation comes as of itself (2 Cor. 1:3,4; Heb. 13:5,6)
~ from Chastisement, by Andrew Murray
We look to ourselves and our strength; we would seek comfort in our own feeling, or our own works, and all becomes dark. As soon as we look to Jesus, to the fulness, to the perfect provision for our needs that is in Him, all is light. He says, `I am the Light: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.’ So long as I believe, I have light and gladness. (John 12:36; 11:40; Rom. 15:13; 1 Pet. 1:8)
~ from “Light and Joyfulness“, by Andrew Murray
And when somebody knows you well, well there’s no comfort like that. And when somebody needs you, well there’s no drug like that.
~ Heather Nova
“He knoweth the way that I take.” The omniscience of God is one of the wondrous attributes of Deity. “For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings” (Job 34:21). “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good (Prov. 13r:3). Spurgeon said, “One of the greatest tests of experimental religion is, What is my relationship to God’s omniscience?” What is your relationship to it, dear reader? How does it affect you? Does it distress or comfort you? Do you shrink from the thought of God knowing all about your way? perhaps, a lying, selfish, hypocritical way! To the sinner this is a terrible thought. He denies it, or if not, he seeks to forget it. But to the Christian, here is real comfort. How cheering to remember that my Father knows all about my trials, my difficulties, my sorrows, my efforts to glorify Him.
~ from “Tried by Fire” , by A.W. Pink
Ponder well the glorious “conclusion” which the Spirit of God here draws from the wondrous fact stated in the first part of our text, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things.” How conclusive and how comforting is the inspired reasoning of the apostle. Arguing from the greater to the less, He proceeds to assure the believer of God’s readiness to also freely bestow all needed blessings. The gift of His own Son, so ungrudgingly and unreservedly bestowed, is the pledge of every other needed mercy. Here is the unfailing guaranty and talisman of perpetual reassurance to the drooping spirit of the tried believer. If God has done the greater, will He leave the less undone? Infinite love can never change. The love that spared not Christ cannot fail its objects nor begrudge any needed blessings.
~ from “The Great Giver”, by A.W. Pink
Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.
~ Henry David Thoreau in Walden
There is no life truly comfortable, but that which hath a comfortable prospect of death and judgment. Never envy the condition of them who seem to be the only cheerful men in the world, whom one quarter of an hour’s serious thought of death and judgment, is enough to make them like Belshazzar at his great feast (Dan 5:6) whose countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. Amazement seized on soul and body. How can a man be said to live comfortably, that dare not think of death, for fear of marring his comfort? Miserable is that consolation that cannot bear a serious thought of an approaching unavoidable thing. This is the wisdom and mercy of the Lord to his people, that their true consolation doth not only stand and abide in the view of death and judgment, but it ariseth from that view that is so terrible to all natural men. This is the blessedness of believers, that this grace allows them a right to, and can give them a possession of. And therefore we should come to the throne of grace for it. Then you are happy Christians, when serious thoughts of death breed serious joy.
~ from Concerning the Throne of Grace, by Robert Trail
The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself.
~ Mark Twain
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.
~ Psalm 23:4, The Bible
I remember your ancient laws, O LORD,
and I find comfort in them.
~ Psalm 119:52, The Bible
May your unfailing love be my comfort,
according to your promise to your servant.
~ Psalm 119:76, The Bible
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
~ Matthew 5:4, The Bible
The first mate and his skipper too,
will do their very best,
to make the others comfortable,in the tropic island nest.
~ from the theme song to Gilligan’s Island
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