Greetings:
We all know that God can show us new things, new tasks that need done, new ministries that need explored.
It is important to be a comfortaa and encourager to others - a beacon of hope in a dark world.
Suffering is a reality of life, and it is not going to go away any time soon.
Only heaven is free of suffering.
In the meantime, we will suffer, loved ones will suffer, friends will hurt, and those in our community will experience pain, some more severely than others.
There will be times when it will be our turn to be comforted, and there will be times when it will be our role to do the comforting. Those who have experienced comfort know how valuable a ministry this is. Those who have not experienced it in their time of need know how badly it is needed. The ability to appropriately and genuinely comfort is a powerful ministry.
The best comforters are those who genuinely care and are able to express their care. It is not necessarily comforting when someone tells us in our time of need, “Well, things could always be worse. After all, there’s got to be somebody who has it worse off than you.”
Suffering is often very unique to the person. It brings little to no comfort at all to know that things could be worse when things are as utterly bad as they are.
Christ provides the ultimate example of what it means to comfort.
Psalm 23:4 says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
The key phrase is that Jesus is with us. He is not absent in our suffering, for He is suffering alongside of us.
It is good enough just to know that He loves us and cares for us. It is sufficient to know that He is in complete control even when we hurt. It is enough to know that we have Him with us every minute, hour and day.
Be blessed.
