Have you ever experienced having the wind knocked out
of your lungs? If you have, you will likely
never forget that frightening experience. Sometimes life brings blows that figuratively
knock the wind out of us—emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Can you remember a time when you were without
strength, hope, and the will to go on as you sat “gasping for breath”? A situation where everything seemed to be
tumbling down upon your head and you felt so very weak? Where
did you find comfort in your time of distress and need? Often God uses others to point us to Himself
when they have previously experienced God’s comfort.
The Psalmist of Psalm 71 testifies that focusing
on who God is during trying times brings comfort to those who trust in who He
is. After dwelling on the righteousness
and mighty deeds of God the Psalmist says in verse 21-22a, “You will increase
my greatness and comfort me again. I
will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God.” Hope and comfort came as the Psalmist remembered
God’s character! Comfort was also
something that he expected to experience “again”. Once you find your comfort in God you realize
that none other gives such comfort as He gives.
Again the Psalmist shows that meditating on
God’s faithfulness to His word brings comfort as Psalm 119:48-52 reveals, “I will lift up my hands toward your
commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes. Remember your
word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort
in my affliction, that your promise gives me life. The insolent utterly
deride me, but I do not turn away from your law. When I think of your rules
from of old, I take comfort, O LORD.”
Comfort
is something that you really don’t understand until you have been comforted in
God, because truly He is the “God of all comfort” as 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 makes
absolutely clear:
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.
If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are
comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently
endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we
know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our
comfort.
I would encourage you to list out the times and ways
in which God has comforted you. Then ask
God to help you share His comfort with others.
There is more than enough comfort in our great God to spread around to a
world in need of His comfort.
May the Lord help us to live out the Apostle
Paul’s admonishment in 2 Thessalonians
2:15-17, “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you
were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. Now may our Lord
Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal
comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in
every good work and word.
With Prayer,
Mark © January 2013 Scripture quoted: ESV –
Emphasis added
Verses
for our meditation: God is our Comfort
Psalm 71:19-21, Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done
great things, O God, who is like you?
You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me
again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again. You will
increase my greatness and comfort me again.
Psalm 86:15-17, But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and
abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Turn to me and be gracious to me;
give your strength to your servant, and save the son of your maidservant. Show
me a sign of your favor, that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because
you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.
Isaiah 40:1-2, 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 49:13, Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains,
into singing! For the LORD has comforted his people and will have
compassion on his afflicted.
Isaiah 52:9, Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.
Isaiah 66:12-13, For thus says the LORD:
"Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the
nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried
upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts,
so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 31:12-13, They shall come and sing aloud
on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD,
over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the
herd; their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no
more. Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and
the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort
them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
Act 9:31, So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And
walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit,
it multiplied.
2 Corinthians 1:3-7, 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. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and
if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you
patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is
unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also
share in our comfort.
2 Corinthians 7:5-7, For even when we came into Macedonia, our
bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and
fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of
Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was
comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for
me, so that I rejoiced still more.
2 Thessalonians 2:15-17, “So then,
brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us,
either by our spoken word or by our letter. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ
himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and
good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good
work and word. 
