Have you ever felt stuck in mud? Have you ever spun your tires in mud? Taken a dog for a walk after it rains and only see mud puddles forming. There was no water but there was mud in the dungeon where Jeremiah was standing. Yet God showed him mercy through a Eunuch Ebedmelech, who told the king the plight of Jeremiah being standing in the mud in the dungeon of a house. The king had Eunuch and thirty men retrieve him from the mire pit to moved him to the courts of prison, where he remained.

How often we find ourselves in a situation where mud was not much better then the prison of the king. Yet what we find is Jeremiah does not step down from his duties as prophet to the land of Israel or the king. Yet Jeremiah feared for his safety and yet is promised by the king that whatever he speaks, no harm would come to him. Though it was not good news Jeremiah prophesied for the king however God in his mercy to the king him to obeyed the Lord.

To prophesized truth can be scary for a prophet because what is told may cost you, your life. Yet the prophets dilemna was no different then the prophets of the New Testament. Stephen a man of faith preaching before the Jewish people found himself in trouble as he spoke truth and not in the safety of the people. Yet God in his mercy showed him he would be in paradise. He gave him the vision that would carry him into death.

Sometimes in life we called to stand in the mud and then called to stand in a place that still not desired. Stephen call was in the middle of those would kill him. Yet his race was finished upon preaching the word of God. No one wants to be Jeremiah and no one wants to be Stephen. Everyone wants the glory road, the life of luxury, and safety. None roads were without opposition. Moses experience opposition, Paul was stoned and beaten but lived to tell it, Jonah swallowed by a fish after being cast overboard, and let us not forget the Prophet Job who went through struggles not brought by correction of God, but was chosen and tested by Satan with God's permission. John the Apostle was in exile on a Island called Patmos. Yet paradise is not yet. A road of contentment for believers is still not yet. Though some believers will feel the contentment in their work, it is not always the reality of the situation. The storms of a believer rage and role and come and go. It is the fact life continues in the walk of a believer. Life has many ups and downs that has nothing at all to do with faith. Yet the walk of faith, through valleys, through pits, and the mud often are meet with peace from God/comfort of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus knew we needed the comfort of the Holy Spirit and spoke to the disciples that he had to go for the Holy Spirit to come to them. Sometimes people are in the way of God and sometimes God sends people to pull us up and out of the mud in life, despite our situation does not change. They cheer us on to do our work, show compassion, kindness, and even mercy in our work for God. The smile in the line of a food pantry, the hug when someone is given a new pair of shoes, the soft voice of comfort in the middle of a store, of just a simple compliment. God knows the need to pull us further in our faith as we teach, preach, and show others God's grace. It not our situation, it is God's grace in the middle of the mud. In early years of typing, I can remember feeling as if there was army of angels praying for me, and then there been times, I felt nothing but aggravation while typing. God was there both times, knowing my sorrow, my joys, and my hurts as I wrote each devotion.

Each minister has their own struggles and battles to contend with. Yet the greatest joy is seeing someone that caused them pain come to know Jesus in a personal way. That the battle had been won for the Lord. Stephen would not see the fruit of his death, but we would through the story of Saul/Paul in the New Testament. Jeremiah seeing the fruit of his labor through the Eunuch that told the king where Jeremiah was. It did not change Jeremiah imprisonment only that he was provided for.

Joseph own battle in Genesis tells a story of captivity that leads to his royal authority and ability to aid his family. What is the battle about. What are we obeying God for, to see the victory in the lives of others that will come to know our Lord. Let us not be dismayed by our situations, but remember God's grace and comfort is for all people, we just have to bare his comfort and tell of God's grace in our storm. Tell the story of Jesus and His love despite the cost of even our own life.

Dear Heavenly Father, despite the conditions we find ourselves in, bring us comfort of your Spirit in our life. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Continual Scripture Study: Acts 7:52-60 KJV
52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:
53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord,
58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

2 Corinthians 1:1-3 KJV
3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
4 Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
6 And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
7 And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.