All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.
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.
For the more we suffer for Christ,
the more God will shower us with His comfort through Christ.
(2 Corinthians 1:3-5 NLT)
Paul did not pray to God for the Corinthians to be spared of sufferings and troubles, but he highlighted what God can do while we are suffering: God is merciful and He is the source of all comfort.
And God also comforts us so that we can comfort others: I realize that those people who are very good in encouraging others are those who experienced suffering as well – because they received comfort from God – the pain and the comfort became a reality for them.
the purpose of our pain is greater than ourselves – it is NOT for nothing, it is NOT in vain.
Sometimes when we are wounded, we tend to focus on our wound because it is painful – and when we are emotionally hurting, we tend to zone in to ourselves – but as we go through the pain, we can be reminded that there is a bigger purpose why God is allowing us to experience all those emotions:
For us to experience Him in a way that we cannot experience Him in happy moments, so that we, too, can be His vessel of comfort for others.
And in the end, for His name to be glorified.
We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters,
about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia.
We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure,
and we thought we would never live through it.
In fact, we expected to die.
But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves
and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.
(2 Corinthians 1:8-9 NLT)
As Christians, that is our hope – that God can and will rescue us. Probably not in the way we expect it to be, because sometimes if we pray for healing, God can free His child from pain and sickness by calling him or her to be with Him in paradise. But no matter how we suffer or no matter how painful God’s answer to our prayers is, we can be certain that the pain always points us back to God.
We are pressed on every side by troubles,
but we are not crushed.
We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.
We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God.
We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.
(2 Corinthians 4:8-10 NLT)
We are pressed on every side, but we are never abandoned by God.
And because God is always with us in the suffering, we never give up.
We are never hopeless.
We are pressed on every side by troubles,
but we are not crushed.
We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.
We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God.
We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.
(2 Corinthians 4:8-10 NLT)
We are pressed on every side, but we are never abandoned by God.
And because God is always with us in the suffering, we never give up.
We are never hopeless.
That is why we never give up.
Though our bodies are dying,
our spirits are being renewed every day.
For our present troubles are small
and won’t last very long.
Yet they produce for us a glory
that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
(2 Corinthians 4:16-17 NLT)
With this, in the painful moments, let us keep on praying and persevering.
I was able to persevere not only through my own prayers but also through the prayers and comfort of the people around me. God used my EAST community very strongly.
So I want to encourage you to keep on praying and persevering together – do not journey alone; journey with God and with God’s people.
Because in anxiety, there is peace,
In sickness, there is healing,
In death, we can experience eternal life,
In grief, there is God’s love,
As we deal with loss, there is a promise of comfort,
As we mourn, God will turn it to joy,
In the world of hopelessness, we can hope.
In the times of war, we can be united in prayer,
And in the never-ending uncertainty, we can live with faith.
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