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When people around us suffer loss and grieve, we often want to do something or say something to comfort them and ease their pain.
The internet abounds with examples of what not to do or say, so what is possible?
Our instinct to relate and share a story of similar suffering is not what soothes them — shifting the focus away from the one in pain and onto ourselves.
Second Corinthians 1:3-7 offers a better way, a powerful passage that directs us and equips us to care for others. It’s not a formula, but it does offer a framework of good principles to remember as we look to comfort others.
Discover how God comforted you in such times, for people will then glean hope from your story, and it will help them look for God’s comfort too.
God is addressed in verse 3 as the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. A father is the progenitor, a source of life — the one from whom things begin.
If there is mercy, God first originated that mercy. And as He is God of all comfort, we must recognize when we receive His comfort and be ready to share it.
Verse 4 reveals a purpose behind this: what we receive from God is valuable. Think of life as a flowing river — taking in clean water and giving out fresh water — we give what we received.
Verse 6 says, “if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted it is for your comfort.”
The Greek word for “comfort” is the same used to describe the Holy Spirit — the Comforter — one who comes alongside to console, strengthen and encourage.
The passage continues, saying “that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share/are partners in comfort.”
The trouble we observe in others is matched by their comfort.
How wonderful is that? God loves us and provides for His children — those in His family. And, according to Jesus, there are only two families in this world: God’s family and the devil’s family. (John 8:44) All of us are born with a sin nature, outside of God’s family, and we must be born again. (John 3) Have you been born again into God’s family? Until next week, Anita
Onarecker, an Elgin resident, author of “Divine Appointment: Our Journey to the Bridge” and minister to women and adults, earned a Master of Christian Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2007.
