God of All Comfort

I am amazed at the power of meditating on Scripture, then the Holy Spirit begins to reveal the living word (rhema) which pierces the heart.  As I have been meditating on 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort," I was hit by the reality that this perfect Father wanted to comfort me in all the places in my heart where I lacked comfort.  When Jesus says in John 14:18 that He will not leave us as orphans, one translation of orphans is comfortless.  This perfect Father sent Jesus to be Emmanuel, God with us, so we would not be alone in our pain or struggle and then Jesus says He is leaving the earth but has asked the Father and He is sending "The Comforter".  Why do we need Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to be comforters because we live in a fallen world where people will sin against us, have sinned against us when we needed comfort, or will sin against us when we are going to need comfort.  We are a planet of orphans who have been separated from the Trinity and lived in our own self-comfort or used things for our comfort.  It seems a bit of an overkill that all three members of the Trinity would be our comfort, kind of like the biggest holy hug you can ever get.  Yet Father must see the deep need of our hearts for comfort, where there was darkness, loneliness, abuse, neglect, or all kinds of pressures.  He knew that He was sending Jesus to save an orphan planet that didn't know how to be loved, our extravagant Father went over the top in His generosity to reach us.  There was a man who was probably 6'5" and 300 lbs, a bear of man, yet from his heart of love when he embraced you it felt as you if you would get lost in the safety of his embrace.  I honor this man, Howard, who is now with the Lord who showed me a slice of who the Father is through his warm embrace.  This man was clearly larger, more physically powerful, and more mature than I but His strength was used to bring comfort, acceptance, and protection.  We have the most powerful, accepting, and big God yet He is our Father.  God is clear about who He is from 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, He is the God of all comfort.  This promise is not conditional about God being the source of comfort when we deserve it, when we are not being cry babies, when we have prayed enough, but simply that He is the God of all comfort.  He is also called the Father of mercies, or in another the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God (who is the source) of every comfort.  To have a revelation of Him as the God of all comfort, belief that He is the God of all comfort must arise and then stepping into choosing Him in the place where you need comfort.  Where in your soul is there a wound of the lack of comfort that needs the balm of His healing comfort?  Often what we find in these places is the band-aid of self-comfort, it might be food that has become the comfort for our loneliness, it might be shopping that covers the lack of feeling loved, or it might be the pit of self-pity that is the band-aid for the soul pain of loneliness.  Our own choice of comfort is like a wall in front of the door that leads to encounter the God of all comfort, we must be willing for this wall to come down so we can step through the door into the reality of His comfort and Presence.  Comfort is not just an idea or concept, but the reality of Heaven's embrace to experience in relationship with Him.  Will you allow Him to be your comfort, to say yes to Him touching the places in your soul that you have sought out counterfeit comforts?  The Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) are waiting to bring you into their Heavenly Hug and as Revelation 21:4 says, "and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be anymourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”  This is bringing the reality of Heaven into our everyday life, then we become a person positioned to broker His comfort to others.

In the God of all Comfort,
Bret