comfort, what’s your source

comfort

last week we reminded ourselves that God loves to dwell with us..means to sit in and abide, we saw this in the scripture below, where God resides in holy places and he we are holy is through the righteousness of Christ..check this out…

1 Corinthians 3:16 Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

1 Corinthians 3:17 God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

why is that important? Who cares…..well let’s see together why this is important. Check out what Paul has to say in the verses below

So if we are one with Christ and we are a dwelling place (temple) for HIM. Then as we live life the verses that chat about God being a source of all comfort and that we are to comfort one another starts to make a bit more sense. Let’s take a peek.

2 Corinthians 1:3 all praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and source of all comfort  v4 He comforts us in all our troubles (affliction, pressing in) so that we can comfort others, when (not if) they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. v5 for the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with comfort through Christ (IS this like some DR SUESS riddle or what?)Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer v7 we are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us…

ok ok ok….I see….Paul is reminding us that it’s part of life to have troubles. He is reminding us that life does press in on us, that affliction is part of the journey, so we don’t have to hide behind the “everything is fine” mask when life has knocked us out from underneath our feet. That this is actually healthy for us to travel, the troubles build stamina, strength, endurance and during this time we receive comfort from God….but how? Well remember we are HIS dwelling place so HIM as a helper sure does make more sense now, but I also see that the only way for someone to give me comfort is to let them know I am in need of someone to come alongside and provide the aforementioned comfort (relief, soothe, encourage one another). Isn’t it kinda funny how we try to hide from that fact that we would ever need comfort. Yea we typically carry ourselves as if nothing in our lives is ever out of whack.

It does make me wonder why even to this day my tendency is to keep others at a distance with “my stuff”….responses like “nope I’m good” or “its all good” come flying out….or or…we say man this day has been rough then we immediately put the “I know that God has it” disclaimer on it as we see the person we are chatting with start to flinch. Not sure if they are flinching at the cover up cliché or the life that has just smacked them in the face. hahaha….why can’t we just be? I believe we are learning together how to, so let’s take solice, let’s take comfort in knowing that this must have been an issue with our brothers and sisters throughout Corinth or Paul wouldn’t have written these reminders. He (Paul) is saying look you don’t have to fake it. Christ is not going to leave HIS dwelling place, you are still holy through the righteousness of Christ, so be free in your sharing with one another knowing you are secure with HIM.

Timeout….WHAT?…and HOW? what does this look like?

share life with one another by praying ,. which is dwelling with one another…sit it in it with one another…..serve one another, love one another, bear with one another, be patient with one another…let’s hear yours…share your whatever’s in life with one another and the comfort that comes from Christ starts to oooooze out from you to others and from others back to you! Go ahead give it a try. What is that something you have been telling the “world” you are ok in….pick up the phone, call that trusted person in your life and allow Christ to stir within.

Sure does make this verse come of the page when Jesus shared these words

Matthew 28:20 teach these new disciples to obey all of the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I will be with you always until the end of the age