"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."
(2 CORINTHIANS 1:3-4)
Learning to Comfort Others from the Fountain of our Own Tribulations
Could it be that we suffer and have suffered so that we can develop the capacity to comfort others? Could God be using us as His own spiritual healthcare provider? As believers and people of faith, we go freely to God’s throne seeking and receiving mercy, comfort and provision. Yet, the scripture above gives us a glimpse at a possible reason for our own hardship and hurt… ‘that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble’!
Our God is the God of mercy and comforting. If God lives in us, we must become a conduit of His holy mercy and comfort. Having known emotional hurt, career disappointment, economic loss, human deprivation, personal humiliation, loneliness, physical disability or pain can create in us an unusual empathy when we ourselves encounter others who are also suffering. In these moments the Holy Spirit makes us the last person to judge and the first to forgive or offer assistance to another.
God may be taking you through a particularly brutal storm today so that you can become the beacon for someone else’s blinding trouble tomorrow. If you are in that storm right now, pray that God’s mercy, provision and comfort will not only find you; but that He will use our pain of the moment to be a transforming occurrence; a spiritual power that covers those we meet with mercy, provision and comfort. AMEN.