Help in Time of Need
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Key Verse: “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” Selected Scripture: |
NEAR THE CLOSE OF HIS ministry, Jesus spoke to his disciples about things that they could not understand. As well as speaking the words of our Key Verse, he told them: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.”—John 16:12,13
It was necessary that they should have the Holy Spirit before they could understand. Referring to the time of his ‘departure’ from them, Jesus also said, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter [the Holy Spirit] will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” (John 16:7) “The Holy [Spirit] was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.”—John 7:39
Fifty days after the Lord was glorified, on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was given to the waiting disciples who were gathered in a large upper room in Jerusalem. “There appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy [Spirit], and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”—Acts 2:3,4
The Apostle Paul said, “All things are yours; And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” (I Cor. 3:21,23) It was to the early Christians, and to all the subsequent followers of the Master, that the Lord had given this assurance: “No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” (Ps. 84:11) They are also told that they will be guided into all truth as it becomes due. What comfort there is in these words! What consolation! What a privilege of fellowship we have with the Father and with the Son that we should be taken into their confidence—to have, step by step, the knowledge of his plans and purposes revealed to us!
And this comfort, the Scriptures assure us, comes to us through the Holy Spirit. It is, indeed, our Comforter (John 14:26), and those who have the Holy Spirit may rest assured that they will always have the full blessings of this comfort. It is only as we receive of the Spirit of the Lord, that we are able to understand and appreciate the length and breadth, the height and depth of his love as revealed to us in his ‘plan of the ages.’
Through his Holy Spirit we learn that God has compassion for us, and helps and comforts us continually as we have need of it. This comfort and help in time of need comes to us through the Scriptures. They are the means by which the knowledge of God’s grace and constant aid is available to reach us. We read in his Holy Word, “Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”—Rom. 15:4
This help and comfort is of the Father, through the Son, and by the Holy Spirit. It comes to us through our understanding of the Holy Word. We are informed that the solace of the scriptural promises is also imparted through the members of the body of Christ one to another, as the Apostle Paul says, “Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.” (I Thess. 4:18) Let us each appreciate these blessed helps in time of need!