Message By Larry Thacker Jr from November 8: Sustaining Comfort”
When life presses in — personal loss, sickness, the suffering of those we love, discouraging news — we reach for comfort. But our culture has largely reduced comfort to the absence of discomfort: a softer seat, a smoother day, feeling at ease with ourselves.
As Paul begins the second of the letters we have to the church at Corinth, he uses the word ten times, and he means something far greater.
In this week’s message, we look at the God who is the Father of mercies and God of all comfort — the one who comes alongside His people not merely to soothe, but to strengthen, encourage, and steady them in the middle of affliction. The same word family describes the Holy Spirit Himself, our Comforter and Counselor, and it echoes Isaiah’s promise that God would comfort His people.
Notice Paul’s purpose: the comfort we receive is never meant to stop with us. God comforts us so that we can comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received. Suffering and consolation travel together — through Christ, our comfort abounds, and it works in us a perseverance that only grows in the hard places.
We know whom we have believed. He has already secured our future and won the victory. So we take courage, receive His comfort through His Spirit, His people, and His Word — and then we turn and give it away.
