Comfort

One of Gods characteristics that i forget about sometimes is that he is the God of Comfort. When i was reading through 2 Corinthians 1 this morning the first section is "God of all Comfort". If you are writing to a group of people a word of encouragemnt and comfort, then chances are they are probably uncomfortable and life is really rough. This passage of scripture is so great because it informs us of two things 1. that the christian life is not peaches and cream 2. that God will always be in the midst of affliction and hard times ready to comfort us.

We know that being a christian isn't easy. There are temptations that we still face because we still battle sin and there's also God making us more like Christ through sanctification. on top of those inner dealings, the world hates us and satan will stop at nothing to try to keep the gospel from being spread. Its hard for us as Americans to imagine being persecuted in a physical life threatening way, but it happens all over the world every day. But we know "whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 10:39)

Even though we face different times in our life that aren't comfortable or times of persecution we still have Christ to comfort us. We know that christ can empathize with us because he has had been in uncomfortable situations both physical and emotional. We have this verse which boldly states the truth that God does comfort his children. "The father of mercies and God of all comfort, 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." (2 Corinthians 1: 4) Its nice that God comforts us which allows us to comfort others, but not with our own "comforting" skills or love, but with what God is doing through us so that he gets all the glory.

Grace and Peace
Sarah b.