======================================================================== TRUE COMFORT IS TO BE SOUGHT IN GOD ALONE by Thomas a Kempis ======================================================================== Summary: True comfort and consolation can only be found in God, the ultimate Consoler and Helper, and not in fleeting human comforts. Topics: "Eternal Comfort", "Spiritual Happiness" Scripture References: Psalm 73:25, Matthew 6:19, John 14:16, Romans 15:13, 2 Corinthians 4:18 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thomas a Kempis preaches about the importance of seeking eternal consolation and delight in God rather than in temporary worldly comforts. He emphasizes the fleeting nature of earthly pleasures and the need to focus on heavenly promises. The sermon encourages a shift in desires from temporal goods to eternal blessings, reminding believers that true happiness and blessedness come from God alone. By carrying Jesus as a constant source of comfort and finding solace in His will, one can experience true and lasting consolation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE DISCIPLE WHATEVER I can desire or imagine for my own comfort I look for not here but hereafter. For if I alone should have all the world's comforts and could enjoy all its delights, it is certain that they could not long endure. Therefore, my soul, you cannot enjoy full consolation or perfect delight except in God, the Consoler of the poor and the Helper of the humble. Wait a little, my soul, wait for the divine promise and you will have an abundance of all good things in heaven. If you desire these present things too much, you will lose those which are everlasting and heavenly. Use temporal things but desire eternal things. You cannot be satisfied with any temporal goods because you were not created to enjoy them. Even if you possessed all created things you could not be happy and blessed; for in God, Who created all these things, your whole blessedness and happiness consists -- not indeed such happiness as is seen and praised by lovers of the world, but such as that for which the good and faithful servants of Christ wait, and of which the spiritual and pure of heart, whose conversation is in heaven, sometime have a foretaste. Vain and brief is all human consolation. But that which is received inwardly from the Truth is blessed and true. The devout man carries his Consoler, Jesus, everywhere with him, and he says to Him: "Be with me, Lord Jesus, in every place and at all times. Let this be my consolation, to be willing to forego all human comforting. And if Your consolation be wanting to me, let Your will and just trial of me be my greatest comfort. For You will not always be angry, nor will You threaten forever." ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/thomas-a-kempis/true-comfort-is-to-be-sought-in-god-alone/ ========================================================================