Comfort My People

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Isaiah 40:1

Though it’s been 20+ years ago, I remember that Monday morning like it was yesterday. Between homeschool co-op classes, I hurriedly walked down the hall of the crowded co-op lobby. As I directed my children to their next class, I spotted *a woman sitting alone on a lobby bench, reading a Bible. It caught my attention, so much so, that even though I was painfully shy, I stopped and sat down beside her. “What are you reading?” I asked with sincere interest.

Looking up from her weathered Bible, she pointed to the passage from 2^nd Corinthians 1:3-5. “…He is the God of all Comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions, so we may be able to comfort others with the comfort we have received from God….”

“Oh, yes!”  I said with enthusiasm. “That’s exactly what He’s teaching me!”

That exchange began a friendship that has spanned more than two decades. It all began with authentically sharing the pain (in all its horrid detail) of what we were walking through, and our prayer that God would somehow use it all for His glory. Use it all to encourage others in their walk of life. Life that is more often strewn with thorns than with rose petals.

Decades later, though our children are long-grown and gone, and there are no co-op classes to attend, we still meet together (usually over chips and salsa, rather than algebra and history books!) and talk about the pain of trials and real life, and what He has taught us through them. My friend and I both recognize that it’s been the pain of storms walked-through, that have enabled us to embrace the ability to offer genuine comfort. His comfort.

Because we have experienced the need of His comfort and finding Him sufficient, we now have the privilege of offering that comfort back to others.  

“To comfort others with the comfort we have received.”

I don’t know what you’re walking through today, or what miracle you’re praying for, but He knows. I pray that as my friend and I found His grace to be sufficient, and as we learned to find strength in Him alone, that you too, would find that same strength and you would be privileged by God to offer the comfort you have received, back to those He puts in your path.

God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.

-Dr. Jowett

The world is full of comfortless hearts, and ere thou art sufficient for this lofty ministry, thou must be trained. And thy training is costly in the extreme; for, to render it perfect, thou too must pass through the same afflictions as are wringing countless hearts of tears and blood. Thus thy own life becomes the hospital ward where thou art taught the Divine art of comfort. – Streams in the Desert

Father, Though I would much prefer not to have needed Your comfort and avoid the pain of life. It’s an honor to share the comfort I have received from You. From Your hand, to my heart and soul. Thank You Lord! Let me not waste this opportunity to honor You. In Jesus. Name, Amen

* Barb Albert (Thank you sister!)

Written by Becky White for the Lord Jesus

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