God of All Comfort
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. II Corinthians 1:3-7 (New International Version, NIV)
Our God is the God of all comfort. We praise God for comfort because comfort comes from Him. He comforts us so we can comfort others. We can only give what God gives us.
Comfort comes to overcome suffering, not to be overcome by suffering. Jesus overcame, so we overcome.
We share in each other’s suffering and in each other’s comfort. These things can bring us together. They are common things that we all share.
We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. II Corinthians 1:8-11 (New International Version, NIV)
We often go through things so we can depend on God and not on ourselves. Self-reliance must be dismantled, somtimes piece-by-piece. God wants us to rely on Him. We can trust God because He never fails us and never leaves us.
We have a three-point deliverance:
God delivered us in the past.
God assures us that He will deliver us where we are now, in the present.
God promises future deliverance. We have hope of deliverance no matter we what we will face.
God always causes us to triumph. He is the God of all comfort, and He is with us to help and comfort us through it all.
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; II Corinthians 1:1 (KJV)
