Abundant Comfort



Following Christ can be very difficult at times. We know our Lord was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as we seek to walk with him we face our own afflictions. In those times of sorrow, grief, and affliction we can go to God's word and rely on the hope of His great promises. God's word gives us the hope of glory, and God's promises give us comfort to the measure of our afflictions and beyond.

 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. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
(2 Corinthians 1:3-5 ESV)

In Christ, we share abundantly in comfort. The Father of mercies will comfort us in all our affliction. We know that no matter what we are experiencing, God's grace will prove to be sufficient for us because He has promised it! We will have tribulation, we will share in Christ's sufferings, but we will share in the abundance of God's comfort as well.

fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
(Isaiah 41:10 ESV)

We have no need to fear. God himself will strengthen us, help us, and uphold us in Christ Jesus. What a promise to know that the Father of glory and creator of all things will uphold us according to His word. We can draw strength from gazing upon the cross. We can look to the cross and know that God is willing to give up His own son for our sake. We can be sure that since God has not spared His own Son to save us, in Christ He will graciously give us all things.

And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:20 ESV)

God will be with us to the end of the age. This great promise of comfort and future deliverance gives us the knowledge that our Lord Jesus Christ will not abandon us. He will be with us. His faithfulness is our strength and He will be our refuge.

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
(Revelation 7:13-17 ESV)

We know that God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. What joy and expectation! We know that the sufferings of this present time will not compare with the glory that is to be revealed to us. Oh, if we could have but one glimpse of the eternity God has planned for us, how small would our afflictions seem today?

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:1-5 ESV)

We are comforted in Christ because the grace of God has given us peace and access, and we rejoice in the hope of glory. We have the love of God poured into our hearts. And we know that we can trust the God of all comfort to deliver us according to his promise in Christ Jesus. Our comfort comes through our hope in the infinite faithfulness of God! The man who can rejoice even in suffering is a man who is placing his hope in the glory of God.

 This is my comfort in my affliction,
that your promise gives me life.
(Psalm 119:50 ESV)

 The promise of God brings life. It comforts us in our afflictions. Jesus never said following him would be easy, but we can know it will be worth it. The promises of God as found in His word remind us that we have a hope of glory for which nothing will put us to shame.


Paul Stiver


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