The Rod And The Staff-Instrument of Comfort
THE ROD AND THE STAFF: INSTRUMENTS OF COMFORT | Rev. Oluyinka Ahove | November 12, 2017
Bible Reading: Proverb 8
Bible Text: Psalm 23:4 Romans 8:28
David wrote this Psalm when he was having serious family issues. At the time his son Absalom was trying to dethrone him and another committed incest raping his sister. But even in the midst of all these David said he will not allow his spirit to be broken. And in that passage, we know where his confidence comes from because he said even though he passed through the valley of the shadow of death God’s rod and staff will comfort him. You may be facing such contradictory and confusing challenges of uncertainty and lack of clarity. Sometimes you wonder why things are coming easily to this people. They don’t even know God. Some are even church people and are willing to compromise and go back to church on Sundays and offer God serious worship…whichever way one looks at it it could be deeply confusing. If you have lived long enough you will discover there are so many contradictions in life. I have seen rich men become poor and the poor become rich and the children of rich men become destitute. This is a contradiction because they have everything and are not meant to become destitute. Because they have given themselves to the ways of the world. I shared this story of a man who came from a background of poverty where seventeen children shared a room and he is now the CEO of 40 companies. This made Solomon conclude that the race of this life is not for the swift. So when David was faced with contradictions in his life he said Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil because I know the source of my confidence. This is David’s declaration. That he knows that God is with him and what he is facing is not a dead end. This situation is not going to finish God. People may write you off but they are writing fiction. Because the idea of you is not theirs. It is Gods. He started your story and he is the one that will end it. Beloved God sent me to comfort you in the midst of contradictions you are going through.
Everybody has something they are struggling with. So don’t think you are the only one passing through contradictions. I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. If you are experiencing contradictions you have to be armed with the weapon of offense and defense. Every shepherd has a rod and staff one of offense to fight off wolves that want to attack the sheep and of defense to guide and defend the sheep to safety. So David said he was able to navigate through the contradictions of life because of the rod and the staff of the Lord.
Sometimes we are doubtful of God’s ability to comfort us during discomfort but David said he is confident of the Staff and the rod of God to bring him comfort. When we go astray the Staff brings us back and comforts us. When you are with the Great Shepherd you should have no fear of the burdens and contradictions of life because the rod and the staff of God will comfort you. In Palm 119 David said it was good for him to have been afflicted because then he could learn the commandments of the Lord which means the affliction brought him back to the Word of God which he had neglected. So afflictions dd something for him: it brought him back to God.
3 Things we need to hold dearly to our heart. If you understand and practice them you will win every time. Such that wherever the devil has been cheating you he will have no choice but to stop.
The 3 Keys
2 Kings 13: the king planned to kill Elisha and so he sent for him to be arrested with all their chariots and weapons of war but Elisha’s servant alerted his servant to him. And Elisha prayed to God to open his eyes so he may see that there are more people with them than are with the enemy. The servant’s eyes were opened and he saw the chariots of fire and he was comforted by what he saw.
What does God want us to do when things don’t Go our way or the way of our prayers? He wants us to be comforted by these 3 truths which give liberty. Whatever is defeating you is attached to your ignorance.
- God loves me. God himself is love and His love is unconditional. So the truth God wants you to settle in your mind is that He loves you unconditionally. When you understand this then you will not be troubled. When you are confident thatGod loves you there is no negative news that can be above that knowledge. Romans 8:32 He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all why shall he not freely give us all things. You believe God for a contract and then you get there and they tell you it has been given to someone else. Beloved that was not your own they gave someone else. Your fish cannot be given to someone else. Beloved God loves you. When His staff is drawing you just accept.
- Nothing that comes into your life that God does not know about it. Hold this truth dear to your heart. There is nothing you are experiencing right now whether an affliction or a challenge that God does not know about. If he knows the number of your hair also how cannot be aware that you need to have a job or how can he not know you need a spouse. If he knows you may ask if he knows why did he not do anything about it. Read on.
- In Lazarus case, he told them he’s only sleeping when they told him Lazarus had been dead three days already. And when Lazarus rose up He told them ‘Did I not tell you that if only you can believe you will see the glory of the Lord. Romans 8:28 Beloved what you see in your life is what He allowed in your life and if He allowed it it is because God wants to take Glory out of it. When you see a situation and feel its so bad God sees glory out of it. Remember the blind man whom the disciples were asking Jesus if his blindness was because of sin of either parents and Jesus said it is not because either parent sinned but that the Glory of God may be revealed. Do you know that your sin does not even change Gods mind about
