Our Sufferings; Our Comfort - 2 Cor. 1:3-7

I haven't forgotten about the Romans meditations, I just haven't had a chance to upload them yet. However, this reading has really stood out to me today, so I felt like sharing.

I love how Paul starts off this section: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,". What an amazing statement, and a glorious praise to God! He truly is the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort; I mean, He is the one who sent His only Son to die just so we could live. He is able to forgive us of the sins that put His own Son on the cross! If that is not compassion I don't know what is.

However, it is the next verse (v. 4) that stood out so much: "who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." Paul tells us, and answers to the question, to why good people sometimes go through bad things! I have this argument so many times from unbelievers, but here is the answer right here in the Bible! God allows things to happen to us, so that we can help others in their time of need. It is a sort of I'll-help-you-so-you-can-help-them deal.

He explains how this happens in the next verse, "For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows." What a powerful statement! I can't believe I have never noticed this before. The sufferings of Christ actually overflow into our lives! I think we sometimes forget that when we become Christians, we actually become a part of the Body of Christ, and that was the same body that was mutilated on the cross. When the body of Christ is hurt - we are hurt! I can't explain it, but there it is in writing! If Christ suffered, why do we think we should not?

But the good news is in the second half of the same verse: "so also through Christ our comfort overflows." This goes back to the fact above that the comfort we receive from God is so powerful and so much that it actually flows from us into other people. People notice someone who is at peace, and being around that person is a peaceful experience in itself. Somehow, supernaturally, the comfort we get during our hard times can actually help others - even unbelievers - in their hard times! It is an amazing thing that can only come from the Father of Compassion.

So, remember this the next time hard times fall. It is inevitable that it is going to happen. Just know that God will lead you through, and that through the hard times you will learn things that will allow you to be able to "overflow" the compassion that God gave you.