"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; 4. Who comforts us in all our tribulation (trouble), that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."
"Comfort" is a wonderful word. I think that it is the aim of most people to be comfortable. We work and earn money in order to have a comfortable life. But the comfort that Paul writes about here is much more than just having a comfortable life. "Comfort" is defined as "a state of well-being." This is what Jesus brings into our lives. He gives us a sense of, not just physical well-being, but a sense of spiritual well-being as well. In Jesus we have security, consolation and peace in our souls. It is not a shallow comfort that lasts for only a moment. It is a deep comfort that gives us peace and tranquility everyday of our lives. This doesn't mean that because of Jesus, we live a life of ease, with no cares whatsoever. What it does mean is that because of Jesus' comfort, we are enabled to meet the inevitable problems of life with a sense of security and well-being, knowing that Jesus is with us. Jesus doesn't just give us comfort: He is our comfort. It is interesting that when Jesus told His disciples about His death, resurrection and ascension, He promised to send them a "Comforter." He was talking about the Holy Spirit. When we accept Christ as our Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit, Who comforts us with the comfort of Jesus. Praise God! We have received God's comfort. But this is not where His comfort ends. We do not just receive His comfort and sit back and enjoy it all to ourselves. Look at verse 4 of 2 Corinthians 1: "(God) comforts us in all our trouble, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." This means that we do not receive God's comfort to keep to ourselves. He expects us to share it with other people. It should be important to us that, if God can bring such comfort into our lives, He can also bring it into the lives of others. We should be concerned that people all around us who are faced with all kinds troubles without the benefit of spiritual guidance, should receive the same comfort that we have. We certainly cannot force this complete comfort on other people. I have had people get downright sore at me for trying to introduce them to the One who could give them this comfort. Some have even accused me of "judging" them because I wanted to do them a favor. This doesn't mean, however, that I would be justified to just stop trying to share this great comfort. Let's get this down good: What we have in Jesus is not just ours to keep, rather, it is ours to share. Every "good and perfect gift" that He brought into our lives is given to us to share with others. It is important that we be about the business of sharing the comfort that we have in Jesus with others. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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