“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins” (Isaiah 40:1).
While many of us are restricted to sitting at home, we look out at the world through the cracked windows of news and social media, and our souls are troubled. Our social isolation is adding to our modern affliction of loneliness, and we often carry burdens of sadness for what might have been. Finding real comfort may feel impossible at times, especially when we confuse the comforts of good living with real soul comfort. Most people seek comforts that can never satisfy.
In our current captivity, we can sympathize with the ancient Israelites during their exile in Babylon. Like them, we need to hear tender words of comfort directed to us, the kind only God can speak. We need to know that our warfare is also ended, that our punishment is finished.
We do have such words of comfort in Scripture, and they are surely given for our times. Paul wrote this to the church in Corinth:
“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 affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (2 Cor. 1:3, 4).
What kind of suffering qualifies for the comfort that is offered by God?
Well, consider who is offering—this comfort is offered by the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, and He comforts us in all our affliction. That covers a lot of territory. The Greek word for affliction used here, thlipsis, gives a word picture of internal pressure, like the walls closing in, of being squeezed inside—a picture of tribulation.
The next verse gives an even more amazing description of the sufferings that invite God’s comfort: the sufferings that are “abundantly” shared with Christ:
“For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Corinthians 1:35).
“But wait a minute!” you might answer. “This promise only applies to our sufferings when we are persecuted for Christ, not for ordinary sufferings.”
Good observation, so let’s look at what that sharing in Christ’s sufferings includes. In Philippians 3:7-10, Paul confesses that he gave up everything to trust in Christ and His righteousness, “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death…” (Phil. 3:10, NASB). The Greek word here for fellowship is koinonos—partnership, participation, sharing in spiritual fellowship (Strong’s Concordance, https://biblehub.com/greek/2842.htm). As Christian believers, we are partners in Christ’s sufferings, as we continuously share His life and death, in close spiritual communion with Him. That partnership joins His mighty, righteous afflictions with all our afflictions, even the less glorious ones that we would rather not talk about in public. He knows about those, too, and cares as if they were His own—because they really are His own.
“He who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him” (1 Cor. 6:17). We are joined to Christ, like vine branches are attached to the vine and share its life (John 15:1-8). We are joined to Him, as He forever indwells us through His Spirit (John 14:16-18). Our lives are shared with Jesus in a deep, mysterious way that we cannot fully explain. But this union with Jesus is very real and unbreakable; it is constant, and like Jesus, it never dies. If we fall, we repent, but we don’t have to beg the Spirit to come back to us, for He never gives up on us. Jesus never leaves us as orphans during times of trial, temptation, or when we suffer. He disciplines us (Hebrews 12:3-11) as His own children, sometimes painfully, but He never abandons those He has taken in as His own.
The Father is God of all comforts (2 Cor. 1:3), and He comforts us in “all” our afflictions (vs. 4). He is there to comfort us in all situations, through everything that hurts. “All” leaves no exceptions, and Paul underlines that “all” by telling us we may comfort others in “any” affliction they have. Those are wonderfully “abundant” words, and when we accept their fullness, we will have much joy to share with others who suffer. Our Father is extravagant with His comfort to us, so we also can be extravagant with everyone we meet. We have a supply that never runs out.
Now, there is no situation too extreme or painful where He will not comfort us. In 2 Corinthians 1:8-10, Paul describes a disastrous situation where he and his companions were “burdened beyond our strength” and “despaired of life itself.” Paul was at the end of himself, in a deep despair and ready to give up. This situation was to teach them “not to rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.” He did not tell us specifically what his despair involved, and it is a blessing that we don’t know. If we knew, we would be less likely to apply these promises to our own situations. The details don’t matter, because we can have the same confidence that Paul had.
Have you ever felt you reached the end of all hope? If you trust in Christ, your “rope” has no end, but your rope of hope reaches into the very presence of God Himself, where Christ stands in your place before the Father:
“We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf” (Hebrews 6:19-20).
We also trust in a God who gives life continuously, and raises the dead. That hope is for the future resurrection, and it is for our hope and joy right now. As John Piper said, God is doing 10,000 things for us every day, and we might be aware of three of them (John Piper, https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/god-is-always-doing-10000-things-in-your-life). The Lord never stops working for us, and He is faithful. Our Father keeps His commitments to all those who are Christ’s sheep, to all who have heard His voice and follow Him (John 10:25-30).
So, when we are tempted in these lonely times to believe that we are unworthy of His comfort, open up His word. Pull up those great promises that are designed to strengthen and comfort you, now matter how unworthy those sufferings may feel. Then share that hope with someone who is alone or afflicted. He is faithful, my friend, away beyond our imaginations!
“Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed” (Hebrews 12:12-13).
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