Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (NIV)
Praise to the God of All Comfort
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
Jesus suffered and died, but then rose again to new life. Through faith our sufferings are wrapped up into His. This is Good News! Why? Because if our suffering is a sharing of the suffering of Jesus then we will also share in His resurrection! In this passage Paul shows us that because of this hope and comfort in Jesus we can bring hope and comfort to others. Every painful, suffering, difficult circumstance you have been in, God wants to use for the mutual comfort of others. In Christian fellowship we reject that we have it all figured out and have our lives all put together. Instead, we embrace our desperate need for Jesus and in our brokenness, we comfort those around us who are also broken. What pain, suffering, brokenness in your life might God want to use to comfort others and give them hope?