The God of All Comfort

       Our God is a wonderful and merciful God.  He is the one, true and living God!  The scriptures use many terms to describe Him.  The description that keeps coming to my mind lately is from II Corinthians 1:3-4 - "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."   Our Heavenly Father is called the "God of all comfort."  How wonderful it is know that our God loves us and is there for us in all aspects of our lives to send comfort to us whenever we need it!
      How do we gain this Heavenly comfort?  We gain comfort through the scriptures.  We also gain comfort through obedience to Christ's will (learned from studying the scriptures).  We can also obtain God's comfort by communing with Him through prayer.  Lastly, we receive comfort from other Christians - others who have experienced the love and comfort of our Lord God. 
       The scriptures give us comfort and hope for they teach us of God.  We learn of His great love and the sacrifice of His Son for the sins of the world.  The Old Testament scriptures look toward the coming of Jesus and God's plan to save the world from sin.  They speak of the coming of Christ and we are promised even in the book of Genesis that the seed of woman (Christ) would bruise the head of Satan. (Genesis 3:15)
       Romans 15:4 - "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope."  The stories we read throughout the Old Testament show us how longsuffering our God is. Throughout the book of Genesis as God establishes the great nation that He promised Abraham, throughout the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, and all the judges and kings, and every time the Israelites become captives of other countries - we are shown over and over again how God punishes His people when they are disobedient (written for our learning).  On the other hand, we are also shown how God reaches out to His children when they call upon him.  We read about how He blesses those who choose to follow Him (through patience and comfort of the scriptures we have hope). 
       The scriptures give us hope in another way.  John records that before Christ died, He promised the apostles he would "pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever."  (Jn. 14:16)  In verse 17, this other comforter is referred to as "the Spirit of Truth."  In Jn 15:26-27, Christ tells the apostles that the Comforter will "proceed from the Father and shall testify of me."  Then the apostles would be able also to bear witness of Christ.  Finally, in chapter 16:13 Christ promises that the Spirit of truth will guide them into all the truth. 
       In Acts 2, we see that Christ keeps His promise to the apostles when they become filled with the Holy Spirit and, led by Peter, preach the first gospel sermon on the Day of Pentecost.  The Holy Spirit did guide the apostles into all truth and did abide with them forever.  Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and because they had been with Christ - they were able to boldly bear witness of Christ and His death and resurrection. 
       So the Comforter, sent to the apostles from God -at the request of Christ -- bears witness of Christ throughout the world.  The church that Jesus died for is established and the apostles' doctrine (the Spirit of Truth) is taught and recorded in the New Testament so that we may know of the gospel. 
       The other Comforter continues to comfort us even today because we have the gospel of Christ on record.  We know of His commandments and teachings because the Spirit of Truth remained with these men (including Paul and others).  Not only do the inspired books of the New Testament give us the history of the church, but we also recieve instructions given on living the Christian life. These scriptures also give us the encouragement and hope we need to fight against our worldy struggles and cling to our faith.  I am so thankful God sent the Spirit of Truth to the apostles, aren't you?
       As students of God's word who choose to obey the commandments of Jesus, we also have comfort and confidence.  As obedient followers of the word, we can be happy knowing that God has a place prepared for us in heaven.  Christ makes this promise in John 14:1-3.   If we have obeyed the gospel we can rest in the comfort and hope of going to heaven.  Consider I Thess. 4:16-18 - "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words."  What better comfort is there in the whole world than knowing that we have this hope -- this promise of "ever being with the Lord?"  Oh, what glorious hope it is -- what marvelous comfort we have knowing the Jesus will come to take us home with Him one day!!!
       Comfort is also gained through prayer, for that is when we are in close communion with our God - our Heavenly Father.  Through Christ, in His name we can take all our worries and all our cares to our Father and He will hear us.  If we are in Christ, He intercedes for us.  He is our mediator.  He has lived life on this earth as a man.  He is particularly qualified to speak to God for us about our feelings, our joys and triumphs and our heartaches and failures. 
       It is because we have this Advocate with the Father that we can approach His throne with confidence.  We know that He loves us and cares for us.  Yes, He is a supreme all knowing and all powerful being -- but He wants to hear from us.  And because He loves us so much, we can take comfort in knowing that He cares about whatever is going on in our lives - no matter how trivial we might imagine it to be.  Why does He care about it?  Well, He cares because we care and because He loves His people.  Until you learn to pray to the Father on a regular basis there is no way you can begin to understand the great comfort that can be obtained through prayer.
       Finally, we can gain comfort through other Christians.  I think God expects us to share with others whatever blessing He gives us.  In referring back to the passage that we cited at the first of this discourse, Paul tells the Corinthians he is able to comfort them because the "God of all comfort" has comforted him in all his tribulations.  (II Cor. 1:3-4)  Further, Paul says that one of the reasons God has given this comfort to Paul and his companions is so that they will be able to do the same for any "which are in any trouble."
      And we also already discussed the fact that Paul instructed the Thessalonian Christians to comfort one another with the fact that Jesus will come again to take them home with Him.  In Romans 12:15 Paul commands us to "Rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep."   Paul loved his fellow Christians so much that he was able to teach by example regarding this commandment.  In II Cor. 7:13 Paul says that "we were comforted in your comfort."  He experienced the same emotions they were feeling because he loved his Christian brothers and sisters so much. 
       As members of the family of God - which is the church, we are supposed to love one another so much that the outside world will see our love, compassion and tenderheatedness toward one another.  We should be showing these feelings so strongly and openly that our worldly neighbors will know we are God's people and they will want this same love and support that we have.  And as Paul says because we have been comforted, we become uniquely qualified to act on God's behalf and comfort one another.

        So to come in contact with the "God of All Comfort."  Read and study the Bible with an open heart and mind.  As you learn of and then obey God's commands take comfort in the great love of God and the record of the scriptures we have - both the Old and New Testaments.  Seek God's comfort through prayer.  Lay all your troubles at His feet.  Find the time to pray to our God.  Take comfort in the fact that He hears your every prayer.  And as you are comforted, comfort and build up others in your church.  Do all you again for the Lord and be comforted in knowing that if you do, you "will ever be with Him."

Christ above all things,
Robin