05092020 Secondhand Comfort

Dear Missionary Lady,

"Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ" (II Corinthians 1:2). As I prepared to share with you from the later verses in this passage, verse 2 seemed a very appropriate verse with which to greet you. How much we need grace and peace! And it is provided to us by our great God. I pray that you are seeing this in your life and ministry.

"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God" (II Corinthians 1:3-4).

I have found these verses to be true during this time of chaos and trouble, and perhaps increasingly so this week. All of us have needed comfort. This is not easy for anyone. Praise God, we have the best source of comfort! God is faithful to provide comfort to us in the midst of all our tribulations.

I initially had some really difficult weeks through this ordeal, being cut off from the people who are important to me and from the regular fellowship with my church family. But God helped me. He gave me comfort as I sought to immerse myself in Him. He breathed encouragement and hope and strength, and I was doing okay. And then I can't explain why, but things got harder again this week. But do you know what I noticed? That in the return of harder days, the comfort of God was that much more precious. Maybe that is due to spiritual growth and renewal over the past weeks, as God has made my heart more in tune with Him and more dependent on Him. But it was so precious this week, in the midst of struggle, to find His Word and hymns taken from the truths of His Word, to be so especially meaningful and so deeply comforting.

God's giving comfort to us is only the first step, because God has a purpose in His comfort. That comfort is not for us alone, but it is to be shared with others who are also hurting. When we are hurting, it is not easy to minister to others. (Actually, we long for someone else to minister to us.) But it is true that those who suffer most are also able to comfort most, if they will pass on the comfort that God has given them.

God's comfort is not generally a nebulous, mystical sensation that mysteriously descends and permeates. No, His comfort primarily comes from His Word. So receiving comfort from God requires us to seek Him and to look for His answers. When we are hurting and receive God's help and comfort through His Word, we have a richer capacity to minister to others. It is only in the depths of suffering and sorrow that we deeply comprehend the comfort of God.

I'm not trying to commend myself, but I can offer my testimony as an evidence of the truth of God's Word. I have often had people tell me that I have a gift for encouraging others. (And I believe that is God's spiritual gift through me.) But that isn't because of myself or because I have independently or purposefully accrued a wealth of comforting truths or an expertise in sharing them. No, this gift is possible only because God has taken me through adversities and has given me His comfort through them. I can help others not because I am so talented, but precisely because I am so needy. Sometimes I have wished that God would not make it so "easy" for me to encourage others by constantly putting me in situations where I desperately have to seek His comfort.

But then none of us choose how we get to serve God, do we? We serve at His desire, His plan, and His guidance. Whatever your particular gift and ministry, have not these difficult days equipped you better to help hurting people? "For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ" (II Corinthians 1:5). His consolation has abounded and has increased to meet the depth of our need. Now we can share out of the abundance of God's comfort in order to help others.

As things very gradually begin to open up around the world, may God give you opportunities to share His love and comfort with those who are hurting. May He enable you to share from the new depths of comfort that you have acquired, so that you can increase in your compassion and in your capacity to minister. God truly does use all things, even hardship, to mold us and mature us so that we can better serve and reflect Him. What you do today matters for eternity - more than ever, and God has equipped you more than ever before for that ministry. Take heart as you move forward in His work.

Love in Christ,
Peggy Holt
member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA
www.pressingontohigherground.blogspot.com