My Comfort in My Affliction...

This is my comfort in my affliction,

For Your word has given me life.—Psalm 119:50

This verse always brings the word “content” to mind.  I have probably gone upstairs to my room thousands of times over the years with my bible because it IS my comfort.  His word is what I seek first.  It is what answers my every cry, my every emotional nuance and my every longing.  The following might seem strange, but bear with me. The picture of me with my bible cozy in my bed brings a favorite Robert Louis Stevenson poem to mind...The Land of Counterpane.  It is a poem from my childhood that always brings my heart home.  

The Land of Counterpane

by Robert Louis Stevenson

When I was sick and lay a-bed, 

I had two pillows at my head, 

And all my toys beside me lay, 

To keep me happy all the day. 

And sometimes for an hour or so 

I watched my leaden soldiers go, 

With different uniforms and drills, 

Among the bed-clothes, through the hills; 

And sometimes sent my ships in fleets 

All up and down among the sheets; 

Or brought my trees and houses out, 

And planted cities all about. 

I was the giant great and still 

That sits upon the pillow-hill, 

And sees before him, dale and plain, 

The pleasant land of counterpane.

The word of God brings my heart home. The comfort the Lord brings is designed especially for me. It is individual and one which the world cannot replicate. It is a comfort that when given is so styled that it lifts me above my circumstances, quickens my heart and is like the glow of warm fire in a cold, darkened room.  His word gifts me with the comfort of His sustaining grace, brings the peace of contentment and enables me to endure.  

This has become mine,

Because I kept Your precepts.—Psalm 119:56