God of All Comfort
2 Corinthians 1:3-5 (ESV)3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
There was a little girl whose neighborhood friend died. The little girl went to her friend’s house and when she returned home the mother asked where she had been. The little girl told her mother she had gone to comfort the mother of her friend. Her mother asked what she did to make the family feel better. The child answered that she crawled up in her friend’s mother’s lap and they just cried together.
Comfort. What do you think of when you hear the word comfort? Sometimes we think of the food we had we when we were children, especially when we were sick. Chicken noodle soup, Hawaiian Punch, applesauce and graham crackers. Sometimes it is snuggling under a soft blanket. Regardless of how we define comfort, we all want it.
In today’s scripture, Paul not only speaks comfort to the Corinthians, but he tells them that the pain and suffering they are enduring can achieve a higher purpose. For, as God comforts them, they will be able to comfort others.
Do you recall the Roman view of success? The Romans believed if you were successful it was because the gods were smiling upon you. Likewise if you were suffering it was because you had angered the gods.
Paul constantly fought against this type of wrong thinking. Jesus said in Matt 5:45 that the sun shines on the good and the evil and the rain falls on the just and the unjust. Earlier Jesus said blessed are they who mourn for they shall be comforted. So, a right understanding of the way we receive comfort from God and bring comfort to others is kingdom thinking.
Had you ever thought of comfort in this light? A few years ago there was a movie called pay it forward. A little boy began this movement to pay forward any good deeds to another person and that person would do the same and it would just keep going.
Today’s scripture is like a pay it forward scripture. To those of us who may have ever been tempted to ask “why me” when something bad happens, we are reminded that when bad things happen to us, God comforts us and we can then comfort others in the same way,
As a pastor I am often asked questions for which I have no good answer. The older person asks why am I still here? The wife of a young man killed in an ATV accident asks is it too late for him to be saved? When my 36 year old nephew died from a heart attack I asked why him? I’ve lived my life. Why couldn’t you take me instead?
The mysteries of this life are just that, mysteries. When something bad happens, well meaning people will often say it is all God’s will, but I need to remind you that God’s creation began in the Garden of Eden. Everything was perfect. It is not God’s will that we suffer. It is not God’s will that we have to say goodbye too soon to a loved one. But sin brought sickness and death, and until Jesus returns to restore the world God created, there will be suffering.
(NRSV) Rev. 21; 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”
I pray that you would be at peace today and everyday, knowing that whatever happens in your life, you can receive comfort that comes only from a personal relationship with Jesus.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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