We all find ourselves needing God’s comfort at some point in our lives, that is guaranteed, and we meet the God of all comfort in the verse below, but He is also to be found all throughout the Bible.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
He comforts us in tribulation, in our suffering and affliction, so that we may also be able to comfort others, because we have experienced God’s comfort in our own lives.
We have abundant consolation available to us in Christ and this flows out to others.
As the old hymn goes, “See the streams of living waters, springing from eternal love, well supply thy sons and daughters and all fear of want remove.
Who can faint while such a river ever flows our thirst to assuage?
Grace which like the Lord, the Giver, never fails from age to age.”
This may be difficult to recognise at the time, when we are going through deep waters, up to our neck in the pain of whatever hurt we are experiencing, but God, if we trust Him, can bring us through and into a place of healing, through His comfort.
He whispers to us, “My grace is sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect in weakness.”
And we can respond, “When I am weak, then I am strong”, as we lean on Him.
God is enough for whatever we may go through, His grace is sufficient for our weakness.
Let’s fill up our jars of oil with His grace, mercy, faithfulness, comfort and protection.
How should we run out when we have such an endless supply?!
What river are we drinking from, what are we listening to?
The river of His presence brings us peace over anxiety, though they are many.
Equipped to be Comfort Carriers
It can be that out of our affliction can come the consolation and salvation of others also.
His grace is sufficient and overflowing, enough to carry and share with others and not be depleted.
We are equipped to be comfort carriers out of His abundant love and grace, because we have access to His river, the life flowing within us!
2 Thessalonians 2. 16-17 says that He comforts and establishes us in every good work and word.
He gives us peace and strength to do the work set out for us to do.
We are to walk in the works set out for us to do, and He gives us the strength to do it.
He comforts our hearts to do the practical activities that lead others to salvation, and how to do it walking in His peace and rest.
He says to us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden and you will find rest for your souls.”
He stands by us to encourage us.
He encourages us to persevere, where Satan wants us to give up.
He sends the Helper, the Advocate, our Friend, our counsellor, our comforter alongside us as our companion so that we do not walk alone, the One who will never leave us or forsake us, but get us to the end of the race.
He who began a good work in us will bring it to completion, through His grace.
He wants us to finish the race and not to lose heart.
His Joy Gives us Strength
Sing, O heavens!
Be joyful, O earth!
And break out in singing, O mountains!
For the Lord Yehovah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) has comforted His people,
And will have mercy on His afflicted.
He frees us from despair, defeat and disillusionment and bitterness, whatever condition we find ourselves in with His comfort.
He says to us, “Comfort, comfort my people, my child, a bruised reed I will not break.”
This is the work of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to pick us up and dust us off and set us on the right path once again.
To pull us from the bushes of thorns and thistles, out of the Slough of Despond and to rescue us from the clutches of the Giant of Despair.
Do not lose heart on the Hill of Difficulty, but hide in the shadow of our Father’s wings, until we have overcome it.
Let’s not be miserable comforters like the companions of Job!
He also knows when we need someone else to encourage us and lift us up in difficulties, not to berate and drag us down.
He is the one who lifts us from the mire.
Psalm 23.4 says;
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
We may be walking through a dark valley where we cannot see the end, with a limp and needing to lean on His staff for support, but He will bring us through the shadows.
He Comforts Those Who Mourn
The Lord is near to the broken-hearted, He draws alongside you and gives you beauty in place of ashes.
Isaiah 61.1-3 (abridged)
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to comfort all who mourn,
To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord Yehovah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate), that He may be glorified.”
Psalm 77.2 says, “My hand was stretched out in the night without ceasing; My soul refused to be comforted.”
But God encourages us with the word in Jeremiah 2.11, He says;
“I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, plans to give you a hope and a future.”
In Isaiah 53.3-4 the writer tells us, “He is a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.”
And, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
He does nothing but good to our soul, He grieves with us and weeps with us and He instructs His children to do the same, to weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn, because one day, God will wipe away all the tears from our eyes.
He Renews Our Strength
He tells us to rise up and look to Him for He tells us in Isaiah 40.31 that;
“Those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not grow weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
Speak encouragement to your soul, to look up toward it’s hope, because we set our hope on Him.
As we wait on Him, we receive encouragement through our union with Christ, as we abide in Him, we receive strength and comfort, as we abide in the vine.
It is His comfort which enables us to endure suffering and receive His healing.
“Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance,
And the young men and the old, together;
For I will turn their mourning to joy,
Will comfort them,
And make them rejoice rather than sorrow.
Comfort Comes with Forgiveness
The theme of comfort starts in Isaiah, with a word of forgiveness;
“Comfort, yes comfort my people!”
“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended,
That her iniquity is pardoned;
For she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
This comfort comes in the form of forgiveness.
We receive the same in Jesus, when we repent and turn to Him.
He draws us back to Him and sets us on a new path, carrying us when necessary.
We tell people and proclaim the acceptance and forgiveness of God.
The Lord Comforts His People
In Isaiah 51.3 He speaks to Zion telling her;
“The Lord will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places”
Her wasteland will see a turnaround, that which was barren and ruined;
“He will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord,
Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of a song.”
Everything that we think is lost and unrecoverable can be rebuilt and restored to the beauty it first intended to be.
Nothing is lost that cannot be redeemed in the hands of the Redeemer.
And just in case we were in any doubt of who will do this, He reiterates to make sure we understand;
In verse 12 He says, “I, even I am He who comforts you.”
The theme continues in this chapter in Isaiah 52.9,
“Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem!
For the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem!”
His comfort is for His people, both individually and corporately.
No matter how bleak the outlook, it is never too late for Him!
“He will feed His flock like a Shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young.”
He takes special care of the vulnerable and needy, what a comfort we find there!
Jesus us in Matthew 11.28 comforts us saying, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.”
We see vignettes of the gospel in every name, showing Him a s healer, shepherd, comforter.
He brings us into a complete and comprehensive gospel of our salvation in every aspect.
Return is offered to all mankind.
God is for us, not against us and so, we are being rooted and grounded in love, so that everything we do flows out of being rooted in His love.
Jesus intercedes for us when we have no strength left and He keeps a count of all our tears.
He Comforts the Downcast
He comforts us as a mother comforts her child, in Isaiah 66.13 “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”
Our finally He assures us in Matthew 28.20, that He will never leave us;
“Behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.”