2 CORINTHIANS 1:3–5 – “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 may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.”

THEME OF THE DAY: GOD’S INSTRUMENTS OF COMFORT. How does God comfort His hurting people?  He will do so in a variety of ways. There is the comfort from His Word being opened by His Spirit meeting us at our specific point of need. For instance, we may be going through a very difficult season, maybe even finding ourselves or a dear loved one in the valley of the shadow of death, and we are afraid. Then the Lord brings Psalm 23 to our hurting heart with compassionate force and comfort – “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:1-4).

The Lord will also use the beauty and message of music.  Who has not shed tears of comfort as a rich hymn steeped in Bible truth brought healing and peace to our aching hearts?  And then there is today’s scripture.  God uses His people to comfort His people, and let’s make two applications for us as His instruments of comfort.

First, understand that what God gives us, He expects us to give to others – “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 may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). God never intends for us to be storage bins of His comfort as spiritual hoarders.  He expects us to be channels of comfort to others.  Don’t forget this.  We get from God to give to others, and the level of our giving, especially of comfort, will determine our own experience of God’s comfort.

The other application is a biblical truth found throughout the scripture and modeled by Job’s friends for the first seven days of their sympathy toward their friend – “Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his suffering was very great” (Job 2:11-13). Pay close attention to what they did not do. Not a word was spoken by Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. No advice. No scripture verse on a 3 x 5 card.  They gave Job what is often the most needed form of comfort – listening ears.

Friends, we don’t always have to weigh in with our verbal counsel to hurting believers.  We are not fixers. We are vessels of comfort, and sometimes just listening, and weeping with others is what they need.  God is our God of all comfort. May He make us grace-filled instruments of His comfort to our hurting brothers and sisters.

PRAYER: Father, may I be an instrument of comfort in the lives of Your hurting sheep.

REFLECTION: Giving comfort doesn’t always mean giving advice or being a fixer.