One of the first times I remember craving comfort was when I had my first child. I remember thinking to myself, “I may never sleep or shower again!” How could something so cute and so small scream so loudly, eat so much, and explode so many diapers? And how could this adult woman suddenly become such an irritable, emotional mess? Those were challenging days as I learned how to be a mom and care for my new baby. I felt my neediness so profoundly.
On my husband’s day off from work, he began encouraging me to take a break in between feedings and do something that would refresh me. He knew that I needed some rest. But what I really craved was comfort: a sense of reassurance that I was going to make it, and that this little guy I loved so much would one day sleep through the night.
So the next few times my husband was off from work, I left the house for that small window of time in between feedings. One week, I drove straight to Target and simply walked up and down the aisles, mostly in a sleep-deprived daze. The next week, I went to Sonic and got a Coke, because there’s something comforting about that Sonic ice and a cold Coke in the middle of the day. But my most regular haunt became the local bookstore. I’d go straight to the magazine aisle, grab the latest pop culture magazines, and sit in the café with a coffee, thumbing through the magazine pages.
After a few weeks of this, I remember coming home from my outing, turning onto my street, and realizing I knew all about the latest celebrities and their marriages and divorces, but I had not truly rested.
I was looking for comfort, but I was looking in all the wrong places.
We’re Made to Seek Comfort
You may not have experienced this exact scenario, but you have likely lived through a difficult season that sent you searching for comfort.
We all seek comfort, consolation, assurance, and security. We want to know that everything is going to be okay, especially when we are suffering or when life feels out of control. Seeking comfort is a natural human response to difficulty, and—this is important to note—it’s a response built into us by God. In other words, there is nothing wrong with seeking comfort. But as I learned in the early days of motherhood, it matters how and where we seek that comfort.
In 2 Corinthians 1:3–4, the Apostle Paul tells us where comfort is found: from “the God of all comfort.” We’re to go to God, because He is comfort, and He comforts us in all our afflictions. The word “comfort” means “reassurance, encouragement, or consolation.” To comfort is to alleviate or lessen grief, sorrow, or disappointment. This is what God does for us: He doesn’t always remove our afflictions, but through His presence with us, He alleviates or lessens the blows of our griefs, sorrows, and disappointments.
But God does so much more for us than simply softening the blows. The word “comfort” also means “to strengthen” or “to come alongside.” In other words, God comforts us not just with His presence but also with His power—the Holy Spirit indwelling every believer. We can think of God’s comfort as His power pushing from the inside out, empowering us to face what we’re facing, enabling us to do what in our own human strength we cannot do—like enduring unwanted circumstances with courage and faith.
Sometimes, when we experience deep affliction, people around us feel ill-equipped to respond or even scared by our circumstances and, as a result, they disengage. They don’t know what to do or say, and their lack of response can actually add to our affliction. But God’s constant presence and His promise that He won’t ever leave us is a balm. There’s nothing we have to endure that He won’t be with us in. There’s no affliction He’s not willing to enter into. He’s not afraid of our suffering or impatient with our response to it. He’s not disgusted with our struggles or disengaged from them. In fact, Psalm 32:14 says that God is close to the brokenhearted. He’s like a first-responder: He runs into the crisis. He runs toward those who are afflicted and in need and offers them comfort.
We’re Meant to Share Comfort
God comforts us so that we will be consoled and strengthened, but there is another reason He comforts us. 2 Corinthians 1:4 explains that reason: “He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
We’re given comfort we can then share with others. First, God shares Himself with us. We receive His comfort through His presence and his power. Then the “me” is meant to turn to a “we.” There is a corporate component to God's ministry of comfort to us and through us: the ministry of the body of Christ, the Church. We’re meant to bring the ministry of God’s comfort into the lives of our brothers and sisters.
That’s a tall task and may seem daunting. We don’t always know what to do or say or how to help those who are suffering, but thankfully, we don’t enter the lives and adversity of others empty-handed. Paul says we go “with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
In other words, God may take us through something difficult, grow us through it or teach us something about Him through it, use it to develop our compassion and empathy muscles for others who are hurting, and then give us opportunities to come alongside others and comfort them with what we’ve experienced or learned. We don’t have to have magic words. We simply bring to them the truth or a reminder of the truth of God’s presence and His power—the same comfort we received from God.
Comfort and Joy
Throughout 2 Corinthians 1, Paul says that God’s comfort in his own afflictions and His intentionality to enter into the lives of others with that very comfort solidified his hope in God. He says his hope is firm and unshaken, and he invites the Corinthian church to both receive and give God’s comfort so their hope will be solidified as well.
When we enter into the suffering of others with the comfort of God, it emboldens our own hope and comfort in God. We discover that the comfort of God is real and applicable in any and every situation. And we discover the joy of entering into the adversity of others with such deep and profound comfort.
Let’s return, then, to our initial question: Where do we go for comfort?
God is the God of all comfort and He comforts us with His presence and power, so we go to Him! We go to the source! There is nothing wrong with Target or Sonic or coffee shops or lighthearted fun. But if we neglect turning to the source of comfort when we’re needy, we will be endlessly restless. So go sit with Him and tell Him what you’re feeling and what you need.
God also comforts us in our afflictions through one another. So, with our ultimate trust and hope in God, we enter our faith community both as comforters and as recipients of comfort. We give what God has given us.
You’re invited to walk this pathway toward joy.
Additional Resources for Leaning on the Lord:
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The Good Shepherd Anthology |
The Prayer Handbook |
A Joy That Endures |
Is God Enough for Me? |
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