Source of Comfort

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. ⁴He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NLT).

My husband Jim and I are facilitators of a grief group https://www.griefshare.org/ . Twice a year, we lead a group through thirteen sessions, helping those who grieve through their loss of a loved one in death.

All people at some time in their life, suffer grief. It comes to all of us. What is amazing to me is that the God who created the universe and our world, suffered grief, too. He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief (Isaiah 53:3).

It isn’t my comfort or warm feelings toward people that helps their grief so much as pointing to the One who understands grief in ways we cannot.

In two weeks, we will remember the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. It was there the ultimate of sacrifices was made. An innocent man, beaten until he was unrecognizable and then forced to carry his own cross and then die not for what he had done, but what we had done–is amazing. He carried all the sins of the world–before His time on earth–and until the end of time.

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
⁵But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
⁶All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him
the sins of us all (Isaiah 53: 4-6 NLT).

The whole passage is convicting and tells us about the awesome sacrifice God–in the form of Jesus–did for us! I remember once my mother explaining how much Jesus suffered by giving this illustration. She said, “Think about when you hear of a terrible crime or accident and how badly you feel when you hear about it. All of the sins of the world–were placed on Jesus to bear. That would be a weight we couldn’t possibly bear. Yet Jesus did that very thing. He carried our sins and sorrows–not his.”

If you are suffering grief right now, remember this, it was our sorrows that weighed him down. He carried your sorrows. You aren’t alone.

Sometimes grief isn’t necessarily death, but other things that cause grief. Death of a marriage. Loss of a goal in life. Loss of health. A broken relationship. Unemployment. Bankruptcy. There are too many to list all of them. You can fill in the blank with what is grieving you.

We have two weeks before Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, but I’ll close with this rendition of the beautiful spiritual, “Were You There?” He is there, knowing your sorrow and grief. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed (Psalm34:18 NLT).

Here is Johnny Cash’s rendition.