THE LORD IS OUR COMFORTER

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 verse 3 - 4

God comforts us in time of trouble so that we may comfort others with the comfort we get from God. A good example of this model of comfort was when Paul the Apostle was travelling across the Mediteranian Sea.

Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.” After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves. 

                                  - Acts 27 verse 33 -36

In this part of the narrative, Paul was the only experienced Christian on the ship. Using wisdom, knowledge and guidance he got from God, he calmly directed the actions of the crew and reassured them that all was going to be well with them.

In the end, they all survived the shipwreck and Paul had a pivotal role as a comforter to other people because He was reassured himself. In fact,  so much so, that when he was bitten by a poisonous snake, he just shook it off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.

Praise the Lord our comforter.

Amen.