The Source of All Comfort

 

A good friend of mine just found out that her husband of eighteen years cheated on her. To make matters worse, she learned he fathered a child with the other woman. She and her husband have two children, and now she feels that so much about the life they shared was a lie. She’s having very troubling thoughts, isn’t sleeping and the heartbreak is like nothing she’s ever encountered. The whole situation is consuming her mind and heart, and she says that she feels as if her insides are just melting away because she can’t get past the shock of it all. Her mother told her that at least she now knows the truth, but this hadn’t been any consolation, and at this point, nothing seems to ease the pain she is experiencing.

When life presents the kind of challenges that my friend is facing, it feels like the bottom has collapsed beneath us, and we need reassurance that everything is going to be okay. Our Heavenly Father is the One that holds our futures. He offers the comfort and assurance that will support the very core of our beings. In 2Corinthians 1:3-4(NLT), we learn about the comfort He promises to give us. This verse says, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”

God is truly the only One that can bring us comfort and peace. As 2Corinthians 1:3 proclaims, He is the Source of ALL comfort, and He desires that we bring all our problems to Him, because He cares for us and wants to help.

To increase our faith in the comfort God offers, examine the way most of us view physical pain. It is usually felt when we are experiencing a physical ailment of some sort. Although many physical conditions or abnormalities gradually progress over time, at its worse, physical pain grabs our attention very quickly. We immediately set out to remedy the situation. We’ll either take an over-the-counter medication or if it’s more serious and persists, we’ll make an appointment to be seen by our physician. So, it’s very normal to address physical pain, and to do so before it gets out of hand. The point is that in most cases in which we experience physical pain, we have no problem trusting that there’s a remedy for our physical ailment, and we also believe that this remedy will make us feel better.

None of us can readily see inside our physical bodies, but when our brain receives a message that something in an area of our bodies is ailing, pain sensors go off and we feel it. We then take the medicine prescribed, and even though we can’t see it working through our bloodstream, comfort and relief registers in our brain and we feel better. All of this is going on and does so with millions and millions of folks every day. None of them can visually see this inner process. We can’t see it, but we have all been taught and trained to trust the process and believe in it, and most of us do.

Emotional pain can be just as, and even more, intense that physical pain. We understand that emotions are not tangible. No one has ever seen emotional pain with their physical eyes, but most of us have very definitely witnessed the effects this pain can have on a person’s life. It pounces on an individual unexpectedly and can make us feel like we’re carrying around a thousand-pound boulder on our shoulders. If we stop to think about this, the realization must sink in that the weight of pain is in fact a spiritual reality, because the weight can’t be held or touched, only felt. It is a spiritual issue that can only be truly addressed by God’s spiritual medicine.

Both physical and emotional pain rely on signals, and none of us can visually see them working against us, but when that pain hits, we learn with all due haste to trust something we can’t see. The thing we must also trust is that God’s willingness and ability to comfort and heal us is more reliable than the pain we feel. Psalm 34:18(ESV) tells us, “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

It’s no question that we will go through some seasons in our lives where we suffer physically and emotionally. We might not reach for an over-the-counter medication for our emotional pain, but the discomfort means that there are internal issues that need to be addressed. The pain didn’t suddenly make a grand entrance when the person we loved most betrayed us. It’s been inside us for quite some time. The event of betrayal caused us to snap to attention about it. We can’t heal it ourselves. We need Jesus Christ, because he is the healer of broken hearts. He alone can pick up the pieces of our broken lives and put them back together again. He tells us in Matthew 11:29(ESV), “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

God is the Source of all comfort, and we must trust that His love is the medicine we need for everything that is wrong in life. Romans 8:32(NLT) says, “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” God gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for our sins in order to save us from a life of sin and death. Heavenly Father didn’t want us to walk around sad, downtrodden, and broken. He wants us to live a life that is more than abundant. He wants us to live in His love and light. God is able to heal our broken hearts. If we will place as much faith in this truth as we do the pain we feel, God will comfort and restore us. Through our faith, He’ll give us a new heart and fill our lives with His everlasting joy.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

 “The Source of All Comfort”, written by Kim for https://rescuefromdomesticviolence.blogspot.com© 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.