Able To Comfort

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 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 tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. 

II Corinthians 1:2-5 

What purpose do our tribulations serve? We may ask ourselves that question in one form or another. We may not find a ready answer for why we endure particular afflictions. In our text, Paul writes in such a way as to help us make sense of our sufferings. He tells us that God comforts us in all our tribulation, ‘that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.’ When we have experienced some affliction, and God has comforted us by Christ, we are then able to comfort someone else who is suffering affliction. By our experience of the tribulation we endured, and the comfort we received from Christ, we are able to become Christlike in our empathy for someone else in their suffering. This gives meaning to the difficulties we endure. We may not understand for years, or even decades, why we had to endure certain afflictions, yet in due course of time, God brings into our lives someone else who needs the comfort we can pass on to them from the depths of our own experience. Thus, Christ, having comforted us, makes us more like Him, as He uses us to comfort others with the same things that comforted us.  

Our Good and Gracious God, 
we rejoice that everything that You do 
has reason behind it. 
We praise You that according to Your purpose, 
You prepare us to do good to others.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning