The Rescue: God Himself Comforts Us

"We thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because he is so good to us. As our Father, he is very kind to us. He is our God who comforts us in every way. Whenever we have trouble, he comforts us. Because of that, we ourselves can comfort other people. When they have any kind of trouble, we can comfort them, in the same way that God has comforted us."
2 Corinthians 1:3-5

Recently, this topic came up in an online meeting of Stone Fire Community. We were talking about "Why there is pain and troubles in the world".

Two specific lessons emerge from the passage in Corinthians. The first is that God always offers us comfort in a time of pain though He may not remove the pain nor the situation or even the person causing the pain. God is always there for us as David said, "Though I walk through the valley of death, He is by my side." Psalms 23

The second vital thing is that having experienced this comfort from God, we can comfort others with the comfort we have received from God.

This last point has been, and still is, how I have very often experienced God's comfort and grace, as a counsellor, friend or fellow believer. Through the most painful suffering I have experienced, God has used me to help and comfort others. This comfort has come through my words, my story, the Scriptures that I discovered and the intuition that came from the Holy Spirit.

Maybe of all things, the comfort of God, has given me empathy and compassion that I can "pass on" to those who suffer!

In most cases, it's just to be there, present with the person - as God is present with me.

This "being present", is so important because suffering can make us feel disconnected from ourselves, our faith and from God, and feeling totally alone.

When I suffer, I want to feel or sense Christ is with me! Not be told what to do, how to change or even how to respond to the suffering.

This is the time where we pass on the comfort we have received by simply being there, showing compassion, listening to the other person.

This is how the Message version puts it:
"God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too." 2 Corinthians 1:3-5