Tuesday 2 February, 2021

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all his holy people throughout Achaia: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. 8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

Paul begins his 2^nd letter to the Corinthians by talking about comfort.  Comfort in the midst of all the hard times for the Gospel. He uses the word comfort 9 times in these paragraphs and gives us a picture of receiving comfort from God so that we can then be a comfort to others in similar situations.  Coming to God then going to others.  One version I read says that he felt “so utterly and unbearably crushed” v8 … What an amazing example Paul is, in some situation of his ministry of the Gospel he felt so utterly and unbearably crushed yet he went to God and not away from Him.  He did not give up, he did not throw it all in but he grew.

I’m afraid I’ve missed this many times and gone to others first.  I have missed the comfort & support I needed from God and valuable insights to then help others.

Jesus, help me to be wiser in seeking comfort from you first and foremost for whatever situation I’m going through, you are the only one who knows me completely and knows what I need in each circumstance.  Jesus, I want to grow, help me to grow in seeking you first in all things.

Written by Suzie Hodgson