Every word of scripture is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16), and yet there are select texts that have become extra special to me during these past months. God has opened my eyes to a new understanding of a text that I’ve been familiar with for decades. And I love what He has taught me! It’s my privilege to pass along to you, my dear readers, this new revelation.
This may be a familiar text to you as well.
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. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 ESV
I hope that, at the end of this blog post, you will understand two basic concepts from this text:
- It’s not necessary to know exactly what someone is experiencing in their grief to be a comfort to them.
- The practical advice I share on this ministry site can be applied to a wide array of losses – not just loss from death.
So that
There are a couple of key phases in this text which help us understand this whole process of comforting others. The words “so that” show the relationship between God’s comfort of US in our affliction, and our call to comfort others.
How many of you have ever felt God’s comfort during a difficult time in your life? It’s a pretty amazing thing, isn’t it? Of course, He comforts us because He loves us and we’re His children. But He also comforts us SO THAT we may be able to comfort others. He has shown us the way through His own example.
I wrote a 3-part series on Trials last month and this could certainly be part of that discussion. One of the blessings that can come from our own trials is the privilege of providing comfort to someone else who is hurting. I often say, “God doesn’t waste one ounce of our pain.” It’s a fact. He has a reason for every heartache that you’re experiencing – and, if we’re open to the opportunities, He can use that pain to help someone else who is hurting.
Any affliction
This next key phrase is one that I’ve been completely blind to for so many years. And my new understanding of this has certainly been an “aha” revelation to me from God. For years, I have understood this passage to mean that, at a minimum, God could use my trial to help another person somewhere down the road who was going through the same thing, as I’ve just mentioned above. Now that I’m a widow, I can be a comfort to other widows.
But if we look more closely, we see that it doesn’t say, “…so that we can comfort those who are in the same boat as us.” It says, comfort those who are in ANY AFFLICTION. Any affliction! That’s pretty all-encompassing, isn’t it? Not just death of a loved one, but job loss, divorce, cancer, chronic illness, disability, struggles with mental illness. The list can go on and on. Any. Affliction.
So essentially, it’s telling us that if we’ve ever experienced God’s comfort through our trial, we are now equipped to comfort others no matter WHAT they are going through.
I don’t need to look only to widows to comfort me during this season. In fact, I have been deeply blessed by friends who have never walked this road. Have they been comforted by God somewhere in their lives? You can count on it! Perhaps they have never made the connection between God’s comfort of them, and their desire to step into my pain with me.
But I believe God clearly equipped them to minister to me as a result of their trials.
So, if you’ve always thought, like I did, that you can’t support someone who’s going through a loss that’s unfamiliar to you, I would strongly encourage you to meditate on this scripture. It tells us that we DO have all that we need to help our suffering friend.
It’s not necessary to walk the same road. And allowing God to equip you in this means you can minister to anyone going through a difficult time. What a blessing you can be to others! And how blessed you will be in return. Step out in faith!
“God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.”
― John Henry Jowett