Christmas Hope for the Grieving Mom | Episode 060 with Ashlee Proffitt
The first title or name that the prophet Isaiah gives to this child who would be born is “wonderful counselor.”
What does that title help us to understand about who He is?
What does that mean for us today as hurting, broken mamas?
First, what does “wonderful counselor” tell us about who this Jesus is?
WONDERFUL
This word means: wonder (extraordinary, hard to understand thing); a miracle:—marvellous thing, wonder(-ful, -fully).
We see that same word used in Psalm 77, one of my favorite Psalms about what it looks like to grieve honestly to God and how He transforms our grief into trust.
I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
PSALM 77:11
You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples.
PSALM 77:14
He is a God who works extraordinary, miraculous, hard to understand or comprehend things in order that His might, His glory, His name would be made known. So that we can look back and remember how He has worked in the past. How He has brought us through. How He has met us in our time of need and miraculously provided a way when there was no way.
When I think of wonders I think of God delivering His people from Egypt and how He showed His miraculous might through the plagues and then climatically parted and led them through the Red Sea. He did that to rescue them yes, but He also did that so that in the middle of the wilderness, His people could look back and remember that He is a mighty God who works miracles. Who works miracles for them!
If you are having a hard time believing God is for you and that He is good and worthy of your love and trust this Christmas season, try to think back to a time when God miraculously provided for you. A time when He made a way when there was seemingly no other way.
COUNSELOR
This word means: to give counsel, to advise, to purpose, to plan
We want perfect and immediate answers to our questions. We want to understand the why’s of our suffering. We want to plan our future in a way that avoids heartache like what we are experiencing right now. We desperately want to understand the purpose to the pain we are walking through.
In Jeremiah 32:16-25 we see this same word used to describe God - “great in counsel” and we get a picture of someone who like you and I wrestle to understand what in the world God is doing. It is so easy for our faith to be shaken, our trust questioned, when we face something we do not understand and cannot comprehend — like that of losing a baby. It’s unnatural for a mother to bury a child. It isn’t something we can understand or comprehend much less see God’s goodness in. We can be comforted by this prayer of Jeremiah’s in chapter 32 as he prays his questions and doubts to God but then makes a deliberate, intentional move to remind himself (and us as future readers) of all that God has done.
When we cannot understand the mind of God — we remind ourselves of what we do know and often that comes about by looking back at the ways God has provided in the past. Looking back to Romans 8:32 — “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
The Gospel Transformation Bible commentary on this verse makes this bold statement that I found incredibly helpful: “When our faith is thus challenged, we should focus not on how well we believe, but on how well God has acted for us in Christ.”
So, we pray our confusion and our doubt to Jesus. We ask for wisdom and answers knowing that He perfectly knows all as a perfect counselor. And even when He doesn’t give us perfect understanding we trust that He knows and He understands and we look back to remember ways He has directed our paths in the past.
WONDERFUL COUNSELOR
To join these two titles together we see this:
He is the wonderful counselor, a wonder or miracle of a counselor; in this, as in other things, He has the pre-eminence; His miraculous counsel and wisdom surpasses all others. None teaches like Him.
Jesus is a ruler whose wisdom is beyond our finite human capabilities. It is a wisdom that is miraculous and hard to understand by our human minds.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9
We can rest knowing that while His ways are not our own they are perfect and we can look back to see His coming to earth as a baby as evidence of His great love and provision over us.
Would the knowledge that Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor ignite a great love for Him in our hearts and lead us to trust Him — even when we don’t understand.
FREE CHRISTMAS DEVOTIONAL
To download a simple and free daily devotional that goes along with this episode and continues throughout this series go to www.themorning.com/christmas.