“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.”
The Shelter
Paul names something here that reframes the purpose of comfort you are receiving in your own grief. It was never meant to end with you alone. It is given so that you may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, using the exact comfort you yourself received. Your grief is quietly being converted into someone else’s future shelter.
This is not a demand placed on you today, an obligation to immediately turn your own unfinished grief into service for others before you are ready. It is a promise about the eventual shape of what you are receiving now, that nothing given to you in this fortress is wasted, even the comfort that currently feels like it is only for you.
Notice the phrase in all our tribulation. This is comprehensive, not selective. Whatever specific shape your trouble has taken, this comfort is described as reaching into all of it, not merely the parts that are easiest to comfort or the parts that will make for a tidier future testimony.
Receive comfort today for your own sake first, fully, without needing to justify it by what you might someday offer someone else. The God of all comfort is not rationing what he gives you now based on your future usefulness. He is simply comforting you, in all your tribulation, because that is who he is.
Take Refuge
- Receive comfort today fully, for your own sake, without rushing to justify it by future use.
- Trust that nothing given to you now, even in unfinished grief, is being wasted.
- Consider, only if you are ready, who this comfort might someday be meant to reach.
Prayer
God of all comfort, comfort me today in all my tribulation, for my own sake, not yet for what I might someday offer someone else. Let me simply receive it now. Amen.
Carry this today
Comfort received now is not wasted, even before it is ever passed on.