Word of Encouragement (4/23/2021)
Today, we finish our reflection on Paul’s prayer in 2 Cor. 1:3-4, which is, “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.”
Why does Paul bless “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”? Because He is also “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction....” Because He is the God of all comfort, He is able to comfort us in all our affliction. For Paul, this was not just a nice-sounding, theoretical concept; this was what he experienced daily as he faced all kinds of affliction in his ministry. God is the God of all comfort not only for some special people but for all His redeemed people.
I wonder what is better—to live free of affliction so we don’t have to experience God’s comfort or to live through affliction and in it experience God’s comfort. If the testimony of both the Scripture and God’s people through the ages is correct, then it is much better to be afflicted and experience God’s comfort than to live in all the comfort of the world without knowing the comfort of God. “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you” (Ps. 63:3); “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab. 3:17-18). Affliction is not pleasant, of course. But the comfort God gives in our affliction when we abandon all other hopes and cling to Him as our only Refuge is so amazing that we almost wish the affliction will not end if it means God’s comfort will be removed, too. Such is the surpassing greatness and sweetness of God’s comfort. If God allows us to go through affliction, it is because He wants us to know God as the God of all comfort, too.
But there is more. Paul blesses God as the God of all comfort because He “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.” In the kingdom of God, nothing goes to waste, not even our affliction. Not only does God use our afflictions to help us experience His comfort (this is because we tend to be easily content with the comfort of the world that we don’t look to God for comfort unless we are in deep trouble); God also uses the comfort we receive from Him in our affliction to comfort others.
Afflictions humble us. They also enlarge our capacity for empathy and compassion toward others, who suffer. Not only that, the comfort we received from God bolsters our confidence in Him and enables us to comfort them with greater confidence. And the scars of affliction we bear allow us to have ready access to the hearts of those, who are afflicted. We have seen this happen again and again even in our church community. How powerful are the comfort and encouragement of those, who have tasted the bitterness of affliction but also the surpassing sweetness of God’s comfort! Let us remember this when we go through affliction that our sorrow and pain are not in vain. For our comfort comes from the One, who was afflicted for our sake to the point of dying on the cross but overcame sin and death. The comfort He gives us is more powerful than any affliction, even death itself!