God of Comfort

From Pastor Steve:

Knowing and understanding God can seem to be a difficult proposition.

It is hard to see God working in the midst of the struggle and pain of our lives.

There are so many times in life when it is difficult to see God’s love and goodness that it seems as if this thing we call “Christianity” is nothing but a cruel  joke.

Several years ago I stood holding a single mother in deep grief at the grave of her only child, a beautiful six month old boy. After all of the struggles life had dealt her, she now had lost all that had  given her purpose.

Where on earth could she find any comfort?

Is it possible to know comfort in the midst of such excruciating pain?

“Praise be to God…the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort…”

There are parents who mourn a wayward child. It can be so difficult to feel comforted when a child turns their back on parents, family, and on God. For parents, their hearts will break as long as the child drifts away. Is it possible to see that God loves their child more than they do?

“Praise be to God…the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort…”

There are husbands and wives who have seemingly been abandoned by their spouse. They have to struggle to keep their family together and to protect the children in the face of deception, overcome with fear for the future and the incredible pain of betrayal. Life itself to some degree has lost its meaning. Where is God when there is so much disappointment and pain?

“Praise be to God…the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort…”

For any of us, and for all of us who have experienced the pain and fear of day to day life, we know it can get tiring after a while. It gets old and we cry out to God, to remove the struggle, to get rid of the pain. Sometimes the reality of our weariness, fear, anger and the shear pain is seemingly more than we can handle, and we are right. We long for comfort.

Isaiah says; “In all their distress, He too is distressed.” Isaiah 63:9.

We can assume that God should make us feel comfortable in our distress and yet there is an amazing difference between feeling comfortable and being comforted.

The comfortable feelings will come and go but the Comforter is with us regardless of the circumstances.

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

As we come to know God, to really know His love and grace for our lives, our confidence becomes anchored in knowing God as our Comforter.

Comfort is not found in the absence of pain but in the midst of it.

To come to terms with this unshakable truth of God’s comfort is crucial but it also carries with it a certain mystery.

After the initial greeting in beginning the second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul starts with this joyful praise of a Jewish benediction usually offered in Jewish prayer and worship: “Blessed be the God”. Paul then makes the ancient blessing a Christian one when he adds “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”. To this he adds the description of God as the loving Father from whom flows compassion and comfort. God has a gentle love for those of us who are hurting and He comfortsus in our time of need. Paul writes “the God of all comfort.” Wherever hardships present themselves in our lives, God is always near.

If anyone could understand what it is for those of us who have had to endure affliction, it was Paul himself. He had experienced and continued to experience hardships because of his calling to proclaim Jesus to the world. Paul was able to testify to you and me, that the painful experiences can draw us closer to God, to truly know Him more.

“…we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy spirit, whom he has given us.” Romans 5: 3, 4

Paul knows that God not only comforts and sustains us in our struggles, but also gives us both the ability and the task to comfort others who suffer hardship. The parallel in Paul’s thinking is that we are so loved by God that we are then able to love each other – and in the same way we experience the comfort of God we can then comfort each other.

Knowing God as our comforter changes us as it fills us with hope and purpose!

The reality of our lives is that we are never more fulfilled than when we are giving of ourselves to others.

Paul understood this as his whole reason for living.

We can get so preoccupied in our own comfort zone and we hesitate taking a chance to step outside of where we feel most comfortable.

Life is unbelievably exciting when we are willing to risk something for God.

Our lives, our pain, our suffering, our grief can serve the greatest purpose when we give away what we ourselves have received.

Knowing God’s comfort gives purpose and meaning to our lives.

There is something to be learned in giving to others.

The process is always one that will bless us as a result.

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