God Comforts You So You Can Comfort Others

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.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4

If we’re honest, what we’d really like is deliverance from our troubles. We want all our problems to go away—and never come back. One day we’ll get that wish in a place called heaven. But for now the best we can hope for is comfort in the midst of all our pain.

The verb “comforts” that Paul uses to describe God’s response in our times of calamity conveys the idea of being “called alongside.” In other words, when we’re at our lowest point, God shows up, often in a quiet, almost imperceptible way. He provides consolation, encouragement and strength through that genuine hug from a Christian friend, that song lyric, the Bible verse that jumps off the page, the encouraging letter or email. All these are the work of God, his tools of consolation to enable us to keep going.

And out of that renewed strength, guess what? God wants us to come alongside someone else in pain and pass along the encouragement we’ve received.

GOD’S PROMISE TO ME
• I will comfort you in all your troubles.

• I will use you to come alongside others who are hurting.

MY PRAYER TO GOD
You comfort me in all my troubles. Thank you for caring for me, Lord. I want to be a conduit of your encouragement and a strengthener of my brothers and sisters.