God is to be praised because the Father, Son and Holy Spirit comforts us in all our troubles. Paul praised God despite his troubles. He never let his troubles make him bitter. He anticipated blessing which took his thoughts off his trials.

We make our troubles much greater than they need be by turning them over, considering them from all points of view, weighing them and thinking and meditating upon them.... When you keep brooding over your grief, you will probably hatch something out of it which you did not expect.... The next time that a friend come in to see you, do not tell him how cold the weather is for this season of the year, how your poor bones ache.... He has probably heard the sad story many times before! Instead of that, tell him what the Lord has done for you....Your griefs and troubles speak for themselves, but your mercies are often dumb" (C.H. Spurgeon)

The word of the Lord tells us "Comfort, comfort my people" (Isaiah 40:1). "As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you" (Isaiah 66:13). The God revealed to us in the Scriptures and through Jesus is not indifferent to our suffering. The character of God as revealed in Jesus is that of mercy and comfort.

Why does God bring thunderclouds and disasters when we want green pastures and still waters? But by bit we find, behind the clouds, the Father's feet; behind the lightning, an abiding day that has no night; behind the thunder, a still, small voice that comforts with a comfort that is unspeakable. (Oswald Chambers)

As we have received comfort from God so we are given a ministry of comfort to the broken-hearted. The suffering we experience is part of the suffering of Christ -- it is redemptive. The distress we experience is a continuation of Christ's suffering which enables us to comfort others. If you have never suffered, it is highly unlikely that you can be of comfort to someone who is truly suffering. The comfort we experience in our own lives enables us to be able to comfort others. The strength which we receive from the Holy Spirit enables us to patiently endure -- to be strong and to persevere -- despite our suffering.

What comfort does God give us to share with others? We find the strength to patiently endure because God is able to assure us of his sovereignty and power in the midst of suffering. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from prison:

I believe that God can and will bring good out of evil, even out of the greatest evil. For that purpose he needs men who make the best use of everything. I believe that God will give us all the strength we need to help us resist in all time of distress. But he never gives it in advance, lest we should rely on ourselves and not on him alone. A faith such as this should allay all our fears for the future. I believe that even our mistakes and shortcomings are turned to good account, and that it is no harder for God to deal with them than with our supposedly good deeds. I believe that God is no timeless fate, but that he awaits and answers sincere prayers and responsible actions.

The comfort that God gives us is that which sustained Jesus in the midst of his suffering. The Father did not deliver Jesus from the Cross. He had to go through it for our redemption. We are not always or ordinarily saved miraculously from suffering. Instead we are given the strength to patiently endure it. God comes alongside us to encourage us and to support us through it. We do not expect to escape affliction, to avoid trouble, to sanitize suffering and death, but to be able to endure through it. God does not intend to allow anyone or anything to discourage us or destroy us. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ and the power of his Cross and His Spirit.

The first question of The Heidelberg Catechism of 1563 is: "What is your only comfort, in life and in death?" The answer given is:

That I belong -- body and soul, in life and in death -- not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil, that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me whole-heartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

Joni Eareckson Tada, who became a quadriplegic after a teenage diving accident, writes,

You don't have to be alone in your hurt! Comfort is yours. Joy is an option. And it's all been made possible by your Savior. He went without comfort so that you might have it. He postponed joy so that you might share in it. He willingly chose isolation so that you might never be alone in your hurt and sorrow.

What comfort do you need? What comfort have you received? What have you endured that you can pass on the comfort of God to others? Can you pray this prayer of Paul in the midst of your trouble: "Praise 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 have received from God."

(See Ted's blog this week on CHRISTIANITY ON THE FRONT LINES WITH ISLAM IN AFRICA at www.tedschroder.com. His books are on www.amazon.com)