Monday, August 27, 2018
God of Comfort
2 Corinthians 1:3,4
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 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.
Twenty years ago, half a dozen of us, friends for life, sat around a table in a room at the Guyana Pegasus Hotel and talked freely, while waiting for breakfast to be served. It was a Saturday morning, and we had formed a men’s group that would meet regularly on Saturday mornings for a Bible Study and breakfast. Sometimes we met at each other’s homes, and sometimes we went out so that our wives didn’t get overworked and fed up. We were young men, so we ate too much and made too much noise.
One of my friends looked from staring at the table and asked us to pray for him and his wife because they had just lost a baby, his wife had miscarried. The baby was a girl and they had already given her a name and everything.
What? We, loud and overfed, hadn’t even noticed that she was pregnant, this was embarrassing. Well not embarrassing for everyone because some of us had not seen her for a while.
There were tears in his eyes, and it was a very awkward moment. You know the reason. We were all brought up to think that men don’t cry and all the rest of it, so a man crying among men, is a very awkward thing. The doors to the room were glass and parts of the walls were glass, which means that people could pass and see a man crying among men. One of us needed to find a way to stop him quickly.
Finally, after a few seconds that seemed like an eternity, another friend spoke up, this was a relief, or at least so I thought. This second friend, in an effort to show empathy and give comfort to our already crying friend, started to tell his own story of the experiences he and his wife had with miscarriage, more eye water. And so it continued, everyone at the table had a story to tell about miscarriage, or infertility, are false positives for pregnancy. Wet eyes all around.
Some of us already had children despite the challenges, some of us had none, and some of us were uncertain if we’d get. In the end, the guy who started all of this was now providing words of comfort to those of us from whom he was seeking comfort. Somewhere in there, I was led to the passage that is our key verse today.
The Hebrews have many names for God, and we Christians, with deference to the Jewish roots of our faith, often sing about these names of God and their meaning. Words like these from the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, “Jehovah Jireh, my provider / You’re more than enough for me. / Jehovah Rapha, You’re my healer, by Your stripes, I have been set free. / Jehovah Shamma, You are with me and You supply all of my needs; / You are more than enough, You are much more than enough, You are more than enough for me.”
We are very accustomed to hearing about God as strong and powerful, and as protecting and providing, and as a healer and deliverer, but we hear very little about God in what we might call in today’s parlance, the ‘softer side.’ When we were children they taught us about “gentle Jesus,” a potentially misleading term, but as we grow older it’s all about demand and supply, our demand and His supply. It’s about victory and deliverance, our wars and His deliverance. And it’s about healing and favour, our sickness and His healing, our challenges and His favour.
But ask us who know God where we found solace when we were mourning the loss of a loved one, or ask us men around that table twenty years ago where we and our families found comfort, hope, and strength to continue when we couldn’t find our children. We will all tell you that it was in the God of comfort.
God comforts us through His Spirit, Jesus speaking in John 16:7 (KJV) tells about the coming of the Comforter, (other translations use Helper, Advocate, or other synonyms), and then God expects us to comfort others with the same comfort that we received from Him.
There is no comfort like comfort from someone who has shared our experience or walked this way before. I know someone who lost her husband suddenly while they were still relatively young. They were married for over thirty years. She has been comforted by God, family and good friends. She has been able to take a good long look at the impact of losing a beloved husband and has worked through her grief and understands how grief works.
Ever since then she has supported a number of women who lost their husbands, she is now the go-to person in her circles for women who must face the grief of losing a husband. I have recommended her to a least one woman that I could remember who I knew needed her counsel and comfort more than they needed mine.
And so, twenty years later, most of us are still friends, we are still upholding each other in prayer. We sit together to talk about our lives, the ups and downs, and of course the children. Some got more children since then, and some adopted. But we watch them grow and give God thanks for that Saturday we shared openly and found comfort in each other from the God of Comfort.
Think on these things:
- Do you have a friend or group of friends with whom you could be honest and open?
- Are there friends of yours who feel comfortable enough with you to talk openly about their lives?
- Does your church have a system of small group support to help people develop relationships and grow?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would find and maintain friendships where we could find God’s comfort in times of need.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex
