The Source Of All Comfort

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

I have known God as many things and in many ways, but when I encountered him as the Source of all comfort, it came as a surprise. In a matter of seconds—as long as it takes for a doctor to form the words no cure—my world was upended and everything came crashing down on me. My husband, my partner in both life and ministry, was diagnosed with aggressive and advanced brain cancer and passed away two months later.

In that shattering moment a blanket of peace descended on us. I know a level of supernatural comfort from the Father that can’t be explained. It has to be experienced. I know something I can’t say in words that has transformed my life and given it a new depth. I realize that the great wound inflicted on my heart has made me desperately dependent on God in a way I never would have known otherwise. And I have found him to be exactly who he promises he is.

I have learned to let strength come out of my weakness. Those moments when I am overwhelmed with loss and aware that decisions are mine alone to make become moments when I am brought back to the all-sufficient Jesus, the storehouse of all wisdom and knowledge. I have to trust that the work of my woundedness is showing up in ministry, though I can’t pinpoint it or identify it on a chart.

God is not a burden giver, testing you to see just how much he can pile on you and still leave you standing. He is the burden bearer. When we learn to hand over burdens in the daily issues of life, we’ll be ready when the big ones come along. We can know him as the Source of all comfort.

Father, be the strength in my weakness.

Happiness and comfort stream immediately from God himself, as light issues from the sun.

John H. Aughey(1828–1911), American minister and author