THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT!
“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 with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” 2 Cor. 1:3, 4.
There is a perennial question with most people – why do bad things happen to good people? A more poignant question would be ‘Why do bad things happen to God’s people?’
If we evaluate the scriptures, we see that God in His sovereign will allows bad things to happen to His people. All of us have experienced such things to some level or other at different times. Why does He permit such disastrous things to happen in a believer’s life?
If God allows anything in His children’s lives, it must be good for us; yet, often they are very painful and sometimes confusing and very stressful. After all, shouldn’t God’s children experience relatively worry-free lives even on this earth?
These are some of the nagging questions we routinely face. We may never get fully satisfactory answers to settle our curious minds, but we do have valuable pointers for these in the scriptures.
God allows anything in His children’s lives for the following reasons:
- To test the validity of our faith (to see if our faith is indeed genuine) like in the case of Job.
- To wean us from our dependence on worldly possessions and earthly pleasures.
- To help us to have a longing for heaven and what we have in store for us in the heavenlies.
- To identify what we truly love and to check where our priorities are – do they lead to our progressive sanctification as God desires?
- To teach us obedience and to enable us to undergo chastening for conforming us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ and ultimately share in His holiness and righteousness – Heb. 12:10.
- To allow us to taste and see that the Lord is good.
- To all of us to help others in trouble.
Let us consider the last two points more closely as they deal with the quoted scriptures and the following passage.
- They allow us to taste and see that the Lord is good.
God allows trials in our lives so that He can reveal His compassion and mercy to us. God wants us to know His nature in a more intimate way. He is a God of compassion, mercy, grace, and pity. How else could He reveal these attributes to us at an individual level if we never lacked those?
The passage tells us that He is the ‘Father of mercies.’ And He seeks the opportunity to demonstrate that very same quality to His children. Allowing trials in our lives is the way to accomplish this.
If there is no calamity, there is no need for comfort; if there is no loss, no need of loving kindness; if there is no sickness, no healing to be experienced.
The greatest amount of earthly troubles has always proved to bring out the purest form of intimacy with God. Such intimacy can only be experienced through greater trials.
Only if we fell and then were held miraculously by the unseen hands of God, we can truly testify and say, “The eternal God is a dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
- They allow us to help others in trouble.
Unless we had been to the shadow of death, how else can we empathize with others who are undergoing the same sort of trials?
The Lord Jesus Christ experienced all such trials while he was on this earth and ultimately suffered death on the cross. No one who reads this has gone to that extent of suffering.
But each of us may have gone through extreme trials so that we can minister to others who are going through the fire of testing. There is nothing more reassuring than that we can tell others that ‘I have been there, and I have experienced God’s deliverance.’
In verse 4 we read, “who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
What the Lord is doing is that He is allowing trials in our lives and pouring comfort on top of those trials to ‘strengthen’ us to do the very same for others.
Jesus said to Peter in Luke 22:31-32 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
Here we see the explicit purpose of Peter’s trials, “to strengthen your brothers.” Later Peter wrote to the suffering saints,
“In this, you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the ]proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” 1 Peter 1:6-7.
Why does God allow bad things to happen to God’s children? So that, we can truly experience His promise of Him being the God of all mercies and comfort. May God grant us yet another opportunity to experience that as we finish our race on this earth.
By Tom Johns, Dallas, USA
Related topic: BROKENNESS: BASIS FOR BLESSINGS
26/09/2023
