Bring Comfort to Others Even While You Walk in Your Distress
Nobody wants to follow a leader who does not know where he’s leading you to, who does not have a destination in mind. Also true is the fact that no one desires to believe in a god who is not present in the place where he is calling you to. That’s NOT TRUE about Jesus. He takes us to a place, one that He has already prepared specifically for us. Heaven is so vast, filled with many rooms, in fact, places to abide with God, for ALL who choose to believe in Jesus, the Savior of the world.
When Jesus speaks these words to His disciples, He tells them to comfort them and to prepare them for the journey they will walk, after His crucifixion, His resurrection, and His ascension back to heaven. Jesus knows the disciples will be tempted to hide, to not testify, and to even return to their daily work they were doing before they left everything to follow Him. You see, Jesus knows their hearts, just as He knows ours.
You might be walking through a trying season of life, a trial, a struggle, an affliction. Could you accept the truth that God allowed this for you? Could you also receive the truth how the Lord even prepared this season in advance for you, even before He formed you in the womb? Possibly you have read those two questions and ask: Why me, God? It could be that you feel that you’re too weak, too tired, too overwhelmed, too distraught by the situation to ever be used by the Lord. However, that is certainly not true. The season the Lord has provided for you to walk in touches both you and others close to you. That is right. Others see you carry your pain, your struggle, your affliction, your burden—watching to see what you do and listening to hear what you say. We often hear the adage: God does not want us to waste our pain, which is truth for all believers.
Get this; when God saved us, He placed His Holy Spirit within us to lead us to others who need to hear us tell how God walks with us—through the pain. As we share our story, He uses us to lead others to see His Mercy and Amazing Grace. When we are obedient to speak the truth, the Lord uses us to touch others. That’s right, He leads others to Himself through us, you and me, even during our seasons of pain, grief, struggle, and affliction.
Paul writes these words in his letter the believers living in Corinth because he was striving to help the early Christians understand how they can comfort others, even as they are comforted by the Father.
“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 will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort
(The Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 1: 3-5 NASB)
with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance,
so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.”
If you are walking through a season of physical pain—God wants to use us right now—not when we are fully healed.
If you are enduring a season of deep grief—God wants to use us right now—not when we are fully restored.
If you are experiencing a season of loss, of leaving one place for another—God wants to use us right now—not when we are fully recovered. &
If you are deep inside a season of despair, tell your story, sharing how God is there with you, guiding you, abiding with you, seeing you through, for—God wants to use us right now—not later when we are fully back to our normal selves.
What pain are you quietly carrying because you think it’s yours to carry alone?
Share it with someone today. This is the redemptive suffering the Lord led the apostle Paul to write. Tell them how God walks with you through the pain. In doing so, the Lord uses us (His vessels) to touch others.
“Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God,
(The Second Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 5: 5 NASB)
who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.”