II Corinthians 1:3-4 – “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
Isn’t this awesome? According to these verses God comforts us in our affliction. He does this because he loves us but he there’s also another specific reason why he comforts us. It’s in those little words “so that”. He comforts us so that “we can comfort those in any trouble…”
How are we qualified to give comfort to someone else? It’s because we’ve been given comfort from God himself. And so with that very comfort we receive from God we can in turn comfort others.
We can’t help but see God’s love for us as individuals but also for the church in these verses. We are designed to share the comfort we receive from God to others. It’s a way of reaching out and loving others the way God wants us to.
Have you been through a crisis or a painful season of life? Do you remember the comfort God gave you? He might have seemed distant or even absent in those initial moments of tragedy. Perhaps for weeks and months you felt this way. The truth is He was there all along. And as believers and followers of Christ we receive comfort from him in those times. We may feel and see God’s comfort right away and we may not but eventually we will. And when we do we have a beautiful gift to share with others.
Here’s a question for us to think about. How are we using the comfort God has given us to comfort others?
Tomorrow we’ll look at practical ways of comforting others.
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