Comforted to Comfort
How God Uses Our Pain to Help Others
Why does God comfort us in our suffering? The apostle Paul gives a clear answer in 2 Corinthians 1:4 — so that we may be able to comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received.
In other words, God doesn’t comfort us to make us comfortable. He comforts us to make us comforters.
That turns the whole idea of Christian suffering on its head. We naturally ask, “How can I get through this?” But Paul’s vision is bigger: “How might God use this for the good of someone else?”
You’ve probably experienced this. A stranger’s sympathy might be appreciated, but when someone who’s walked the same path comes alongside you, their words carry a unique weight. They’re not guessing. They know. That’s a kind of comfort no textbook can teach.
Paul knew this. He was “pressed out of measure” and “despaired even of life” (v.8) — but through that pressure, he came to rely not on himself, but on God who raises the dead. He discovered that God is near in our deepest sorrow and is always working, even when deliverance doesn’t come in the way we expect.
Here’s the point: Your pain might become someone else’s pathway to hope.
This week, let’s look around. Who’s hurting? Who needs a kind word, a prayer, or even just someone who understands? If God has comforted you, don’t keep it to yourself. Be a Barnabas — “a son of encouragement.”
After all, the most Christlike people are not those untouched by suffering, but those who use their suffering to bring healing to others.