Home2Cr 1:3-4 ESV – 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 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.
I came across this today. Josh Shearer and I are reading through the bible in a year. It is going pretty well so far, into the 4th month now and staying with it. I haven’t gotten more than a day out of sync at any time, so I’m blessed to be continuing in this endeavor.
It amazes me the comfort that God gives. We can all look at life and see comfort, or we can see pain, depending on where we are. The birth of child, the loss of a loved one. The rise of wealth, the decline into poverty. We are blessed and we are afflicted. We have great joys and great pain. Most would say that God is the comforter in the joys while some might point to God as the tormentor in the pain. That depends on your belief, your faith, your theology. What doesn’t change is that God is the comforter, the God of all comfort.
God provides comfort in the midst of distress. When all is bleak, God is a light. When all is dark, God is the beacon. His promises, His love, His care, eternity with him, all those things matter for comfort at the end of your rope. At the end of your rope, there is nothing, nothing or hope in God. Most of us are at the end of our rope. Most of us don’t know it.
Most don’t recognize how close to perishing or death or destruction or devastation or poverty we are. A snap of the fingers and everything changes. Out of comfort. Out of peace. And in that time we have only God. And if we will not have God, we will not have anything.
Likewise, God has given us bodies that we feel pain in, that we feel hunger in, that we feel cold in. Why? so we might comfort others in their affliction.
God of all comfort. comfort He provides. provides directly, provides spiritually, provides through others along side us. God is the God of all comfort.