In my blog post for yesterday I introduced you to the 10 times that the word "comfort" (or a form of that same word) is used in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7. We saw that God is the "God of all comfort." We defined "comfort" as "coming alongside of". God "comforts" us in all of our afflictions. He "comes alongside" of us and gives us Someone to lean on through the pain.
Before we look at why He does this, notice one thing about the word "affliction." He comforts us in all of our "affliction." The word literally speaks of "pressure" and speaks of any stress, persecution or trial that comes into our lives. If you are feeling the "pressure" of life, God promises to "come alongside" of you. But He does so for a reason!
According to verse 4, God "comes alongside" of us in our time of "pressure" so that we can "come alongside" of others who are going through the same type of "pressure." If you have experienced the comfort of God, one of the reasons is so that you can now be used of God to "come alongside" of someone else who is currently walking through the same type of pressure that you experienced.
My wife and I have had the wonderful privilege of doing just that this past weekend. In our recent past, God allowed us to experience some serious "pressure." It was hard and it hurt, but all through the journey it was evident that God had "come alongside" of us. We saw His fingerprints daily. He didn't take the pain away or fix the problem, but He did "come alongside" of us and allow us to lean on Him. As a result we made it through our "pressure" time and are better because of it.
This past weekend God allowed us to "come alongside" of another couple who is currently going through the same type of "pressure" that we experienced. We couldn't take their pain away, nor could we fix their problem. But we could "come alongside" of them as a couple who understands what they are feeling and experiencing and allow them to "lean on us." What joy that brought to us, and hopefully, what comfort it brought to this other dear couple that we have quickly come to respect and love.
1 comment:
I respect you guys so much for turning your painful experience into a blessing for someone else. I'm sure it wasn't easy for you to re-visit your own recent wounds, but hopefully it blessed you to help that couple. I'm sure it blessed them.
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