Comfort in the Midst of Sorrow
\nBy Keith Marriner<\/p>\n
Recently I posted on the book of Ruth. I noted, among other things, how God worked in and through the suffering of Naomi to bring her to a place of blessing. God uses our afflictions to do some of his best work in us and through us. He uses struggles to shape us and make us into the image of his beloved Son.<\/p>\n
But one of the things I failed to really consider was the way the Lord comforts us while we are going through difficulties. While mourning the death of her husband, Naomi had her two sons to give her consolation. When her sons passed, she had the love and faithfulness of Ruth to hold her up.<\/p>\n
When we go through personal tragedies, God is faithful to his own to give them comfort, often in the form of people around them, most notably the church. Brothers and sisters in Christ are the instruments God uses, along with the personal presence of the Holy Spirit, to buoy our sunken spirits. In a bit of irony, it is the very experience of past suffering and knowing God\u2019s comfort in suffering that the Lord uses to comfort His people. Paul, writing to the church at Corinth states:<\/p>\n
\u201cPraise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God\u201d (2 Corinthians 1:3\u20134).<\/p>\n
We who have been hurt most deeply have not borne it for nothing. There is purpose in the pain. There is a reason for our affliction. In part, to shape us and form us into the perfect image of Christ, too be sure. But more than that; to supply the comfort of the Lord to those who are presently hurting, so that those who are burdened with sorrow may know the joy of the Lord through our being there with them.<\/p>\n
This doesn\u2019t mean the hurt and heartache will vanish. We aren\u2019t promised that in this life. But we can know the Lord\u2019s gracious comforting touch while we experience sorrow. Paul puts it this way concerning his response to his own sufferings, \u201csorrowful yet always rejoicing\u201d (2 Corinthians 6:10). This is possible through God\u2019s help, as his people respond to those who are hurting with the comfort of Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":3387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[711,723,724,182,710,712],"class_list":{"0":"post-3386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general","8":"tag-christian-life","9":"tag-comfort","10":"tag-comfort-in-the-midst-of-sorrow","11":"tag-keith-marriner","12":"tag-ruth","13":"tag-suffering","14":"entry"},"title_es":"Confort en medio del dolor","content_es":"Confort en medio de la tristeza Por Keith Marriner Hace poco poste\u00e9 en el libro de Ruth. Not\u00e9, entre otras cosas, c\u00f3mo Dios trabaj\u00f3 en y por medio del sufrimiento de Naomi para llevarla a un lugar de bendici\u00f3n. Dios usa nuestras aflicciones para hacer algo de su mejor obra en nosotros ya trav\u00e9s de nosotros. \u00c9l usa las luchas para modelarnos y hacernos a la imagen de su Hijo amado. Pero una de las cosas que no pude considerar realmente fue la manera en que el Se\u00f1or nos consuela mientras estamos pasando por dificultades. Mientras duel\u00eda la muerte de su marido, Naomi tuvo a sus dos hijos para darle consuelo. Cuando sus hijos pasaron, ella tuvo el amor y la fidelidad de Ruth para sostenerla. Cuando pasamos por tragedias personales, Dios es fiel a los suyos para darles consuelo, a menudo en la forma de personas alrededor de ellos, sobre todo la iglesia. Hermanos y hermanas en Cristo son los instrumentos que Dios usa, junto con la presencia personal del Esp\u00edritu Santo, para animar a nuestros esp\u00edritus hundidos. En un poco de iron\u00eda, es la experiencia misma del sufrimiento pasado y conocer el consuelo de Dios en el sufrimiento que el Se\u00f1or usa para consolar a Su pueblo. Pablo, escribiendo a la iglesia de Corinto, declara: "Alabado sea el Dios y Padre de nuestro Se\u00f1or Jesucristo, Padre de compasi\u00f3n y Dios de toda consolaci\u00f3n, que nos consuela en todas nuestras tribulaciones, para que podamos consolar a aquellos en cualquier problema con el consuelo que nosotros mismos recibimos de Dios "(2 Corintios 1: 3-4). Nosotros, quienes hemos sido lastimados m\u00e1s profundamente, no lo hemos soportado por nada. Hay prop\u00f3sito en el dolor. Hay una raz\u00f3n para nuestra aflicci\u00f3n. En parte, para conformarnos y formarnos en la imagen perfecta de Cristo, tambi\u00e9n estamos seguros. Pero m\u00e1s que eso; para proveer el consuelo del Se\u00f1or a los que est\u00e1n sufriendo, para que los que est\u00e1n sobrecargados de dolor conozcan el gozo del Se\u00f1or por estar all\u00ed con ellos. Esto no significa que el dolor y la angustia desaparezcan. No nos han prometido que en esta vida. Pero podemos conocer el toque reconfortante y gracioso del Se\u00f1or mientras experimentamos el dolor. Pablo lo expresa de esta manera con respecto a su respuesta a sus propios sufrimientos, "triste pero siempre gozoso" (2 Corintios 6:10). Esto es posible gracias a la ayuda de Dios, ya que su pueblo responde a aquellos que est\u00e1n sufriendo con el consuelo de Cristo.","author_name":"","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/09\/Comfort-in-the-midst-of-Sorrow.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4T9u2-SC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/discipleship\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}