God of all comfort

Image via Wikipedia

When others suffer and we are able to give help and comfort, we learn more about "the God of all comfort." We are able to comfort "with the comfort with which He comforts us." 

Mary Helen Purcell (7/30/1926-2/23/2010) lived with us for 11 years. Her attitudes toward her own blindness opened our eyes to much good, including the importance of "a place for everything and everything in its place." Her other medical needs taught us how quickly wheelchair, oxygen machine, and other apparatus can become part of home routine.

Mary Helen's heart ran its course. As Martin Luther wrote, "The body they may kill; God's truth abideth still; his kingdom is forever." They are not only the evils expressed through human or warring threats, but also through illness, frailty, and suffering.

"His kingdom is forever": God gives an eternal, living hope through His Son, the Redeemer of the world, Jesus. Eternal life is for those who by faith trust Him. And, those who trust Him will meet in heaven. The knowledge of these truths comforts all who believe.

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, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.  

For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

Related articles to consider:

• Accepting Christ (anointedplace.wordpress.com)
• How To Fight Against Worry, Anxiety and Fear (pastorpaulvbsblog.blogspot.com)
• Hebrews 6 (asorensen.wordpress.com)
• Hebrews 1 (asorensen.wordpress.com)

Related articles

• Accepting Christ (anointedplace.wordpress.com)
• How To Fight Against Worry, Anxiety and Fear (pastorpaulvbsblog.blogspot.com)
• Hebrews 6 (asorensen.wordpress.com)
• Hebrews 1 (asorensen.wordpress.com)

Chapter 6. The Garment of Praise-excerpts

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness... (Isaiah 61:3d)

"...whereas the first [sacred exchange] adorned the face with beauty, and the second anointed the head with joy, this last and widest covers the whole person with a garment of praise. Man's first garment was of his own making, and it could not cover his shame; but this garment is of God's making, and it makes us comfortable in ourselves and comely in the sight of God and man. Those to whom God gives the garment of praise are better adorned than Solomon in all his glory." (page 113)

The spirit of heaviness..."shall be removed. The blessings that Jesus gives to us are not surface ones, yet they touch the center of our being. At first, we may not perceive their depth, but only know that beauty is given instead of ashes....However, in the words before us, the very spirit of heaviness--the fountain from where the mourning flows, the hearth upon which the ashes are burned--is dealt with and taken away." (page 114)

"Faith, too, that blessed gift of God, works to the clearing away of heaviness, wherever it resides....Faith takes the telescope, looks beyond the narrow range of time into the eternal heavens, and sees a crown laid up for the faithful. ...

"Hope enters, too, with her silver light, borrowed from faithful promises. She expects the future glory....so, again, she drives away the gloom of the heart.

"Love, also, the sweetest of the three, comes in and teaches us to be resigned to the will of God, and then sweetly charms us into acquiescence with all the divine purposes. When we reach that point--and so love God that whatever He may do with us we are resolved to trust Him and praise His name--then the spirit of heaviness must vanish." (page 124)

Faith takes the telescope, looks beyond the narrow range of time into the eternal heavens, and sees a crown laid up for the faithful. 

With appreciation, thanks to Bing images for the traditional Christmas scene.