We all seek comfort in various ways — through possessions, relationships, or even distractions. But true, lasting comfort comes from a different source, and it comes by way of the truth. In this lesson, we see how the Bible presents God as the ultimate Comforter. We uncover four different ways the Bible describes God's solace in our difficult lives. Learn why the comfort found in faith far surpasses the temporary reliefs offered by the world.
The Christian philosopher, CS Lewis, once wrote, “Comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth — only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair.”
We all spend, at least some of our time, in the relentless pursuit of comfort. Our modern society is full of industries and innovations designed to make us comfortable. Trillions of dollars are poured into its pursuit –– air conditioning, medications, travel and leisure, consumer electronics, and entertainment, just to name a few.
But most of us have experienced the limitations of these types of comforts. When life gets complicated and our hearts grow anxious, we realize that these creature comforts can only mask our troubles temporarily. They don’t make them go away. So, in that sense, CS Lewis was right. The pursuit of comfort will only leave us wanting more at the end of the day.
So, where do we look instead in our times of suffering? The only secure answer is that we need to look to the One who created it all, including our own soul. Whoever created our soul is the One who’s able to comfort it. Did you create your soul? Did the government? Money? Your friends and family? Industry and innovations? No, the God and Father of Compassion created your soul, and the Bible says about Him in 2 Corinthians 1:3 that He is the God of All Comfort.
But we need to define specifically what’s meant by comfort. Some people view God as a warm blanket or cuddly teddy bear they bring in close when they’re in a bad mood. They may even scan the Bible looking for that one feel good passage to lift their spirits. Don’t get me wrong. The words of God found in the Bible can bring us much comfort when we’re feeling down. However, when the Bible talks about God being a Comforter, it’s rarely in the sense of Him just providing us with warm and fuzzy feelings. It’s a lot deeper than that.
Nothing in life can be considered truly and extraordinarily comfortable unless some pain and discomfort have come first. For example, I like to climb mountains. It’s an activity that brings me a great amount of— well, comfort to my soul. But, you may ask, how can climbing a mountain be comfortable? Doesn’t that come along with of pain and difficulty? Right. But I learned through all this pain and discomfort that there’s a special reward, a comfort to my soul at the top of the mountain. And I had to climb my first mountain, which was a horrible experience, just to discover the joys of accomplishment and to witness that extraordinary beauty of creation that can only be found in the clouds.
Discovering the God of All Comfort is a similar experience. We must first work, suffer, search, and sacrifice before we become truly and fully acquainted with the great comfort that God provides. Hang in there with me, and we’ll take a look at four different ways that the Bible talks about God comforting us. We’ll notice in each case that comfort is not found in the pursuit of comfort itself, as the world typically defines it, but it’s found in our contentment while in the pursuit of God and while maintaining allegiance to Him.
Podcast Intro
Hello everybody. This is the Relentlessly Knocking podcast. I’m Scott Ihle, and I’m the Executive Director of Logos Answers, and the missionary in residence at Woodstock church of Christ in Atlanta, GA. Jesus told His disciples that if they knock, the door would be opened for them. And on this podcast, we are knocking relentlessly and unapologetically as we try to discover the truth about God the Creator, the Anointed Son of God, Jesus, and their Spirit-inspired Word as found in the Bible.
When we’re left alone and feeling alienated by God
The first way that the Bible talks about God comforting us is when we’re feeling left alone and alienated by God. There are times in our lives when we feel separated. Sometimes it might just be negative feelings, even though we hadn’t done anything wrong. But at other times, we feel separated from God because we’ve turned away from Him in some way. We may have neglected God, disregarded Him, disobeyed Him, or in some way shown a disrespectful or ungrateful attitude. In those moments, we feel like dirt. And, we should feel sorry in those moments. But in our grief over our separation from God, where do we look to for comfort? Do you look to yourself for comfort? Do you just try to dig in deeper to your present course? Or maybe you decide to busy yourself with some other distraction to dull the senses, some cause to occupy your mind, or some other god to serve and worship.
In those moments, God doesn’t want us to look for comfort in any of those places. Instead, He wants us to forget about our mistakes and look to Him for comfort through forgiveness and restoration. In the Bible, the prophet Isaiah had a lot to say about the subject of God’s comfort.
For example, he writes in chapter 40, “’Comfort, comfort my people,’ says your God… He will feed His flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in His arms, holding them close to His heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young” (NLT). Isaiah 49:13 says, “Sing for joy, O heavens! Rejoice, O earth! Burst into song, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people and will have compassion on them in their suffering.” 51:12 says, “I, yes I, am the One who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mere humans, who wither like the grass and disappear?” And Isaiah 57:18 says, “I have seen what they do, but I will heal them anyway! I will lead them. I will comfort those who mourn.”
Notice that in this last passage, God promises to comfort those who mourn. Jesus Himself alludes to this passage in His Sermon on the Mount when He says, “Blessed are those who mourn; for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:7). But it’s important to note that Jesus, along with the prophet Isaiah, aren’t talking particularly about the mourning someone experiences over the loss of a loved one. In the context of all these Isaiah passages, God is promising to comfort His people at some point in their future, after their time of judgment and punishment. The people had rebelled against God in many ways, and God was going to hand the Israelites over to the nations around them. However, following this time of judgment, God is promising them a time of forgiveness and restoration when God Himself will come to this earth. That time was fulfilled many centuries later in the life of Jesus, the Messiah. Therefore, God’s promises of comfort in Isaiah all relate to the work of Jesus in forgiving us of our sins and reconciling us back to a relationship with God.
The implications for us are that when we’re feeling alone and alienated from God because of our lifestyle, behaviors, or attitude, we can look to God for comfort. Now, I don’t mean the type of comfort that comes from continuing a certain course and imagining that God doesn’t care about our selfish behavior. That would be delusional. I’m talking about the comfort that is associated with repentance and is found in knowing that we can be forgiven of our sins and restored to a pure and blessed relationship with our Creator.
When Jesus knew that His time on this earth was short, He warned His disciples that He was about to leave them. This made them sad. They had heard all His perfect teaching and seen all His charitable works in person — God in the flesh. They weren’t ready for Him to go away. But Jesus told them in John 14, “If you all love me, keep my commandments. And I Myself will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, so that He would be with you into eternity. He is The Spirit of Truth, which the world is not able to receive, because it does not notice Him, nor know Him. You all know Him, because He lives with you all and will be with you all. I will not leave you as orphans. I am coming to you all” (15–18, my translation).
In this passage, Jesus promised not to leave the disciples as orphans because He would send the Comforter. The Comforter is the Holy Spirit of God who would take Jesus’ place at the side of the disciples. Jesus, after His death and resurrection, would ascend to heaven to take the throne as our King and Judge. But that doesn’t mean that we as Christians are left alone, without the presence of God in our lives. Jesus would send the Comforter, God in the Spirit, to live with us into eternity.
Notice that the comfort of God is not fulfilled in our lives just because we’re now forgiven of our sins. Of course that’s a major part of God’s comfort. But imagine you’ve been forgiven of all your sins. You’ve had your slate wiped completely clean. But now what? You just keep living your life like you did before? That wouldn’t be comfortable at all. That would be a disappointment. That’s why Jesus’ work didn’t stop after His death. It continued and continues on today through the work of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, God’s presence in our lives. When we’re forgiven of our sins, we then have the promise of God by our side, helping us and comforting us. Put in more concrete terms, we’re comforted by God’s presence in our lives because we keep His commandments (John 14:21) and demonstrate the love of Christ in our lives (John 15:9–10).
I’ve personally experienced nearly all this life has to offer. I’ve travelled and seen the world. I’ve spent way too much money on various pleasures. Yet, I can say to you with absolute confidence that there’s nothing more comforting in this world than to turn away from one’s own desires, to turn to God and seek His forgiveness, and to have a renewed life of reflecting God’s perfect character, and having Him by your side daily.
When we’re poor and weak
The second way that the Bible talks about God comforting us is through our poverty and weaknesses. That sounds counterintuitive, right? Popular wisdom would tell us that if we want to be more comfortable, we need to be richer and more powerful. But that’s not the case with God’s comfort. If we want God’s comfort, the riches and power of this world won’t help us. In fact, they’ll only become a distraction from fully appreciating God’s comfort.
Notice what Jesus has to say to His disciples in Luke chapter 6, “Blessed are you who are poor, because the kingdom of God is yours… But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort” (20, 24, CSB).
In another instance, in Luke chapter 16, Jesus uses the illustration of a rich man and a poor man. The rich man lived in splendor his whole life and neglected to show charity to the poor man. After both men died, the rich man went to a place of torment, and the poor man, named Lazarus, went to a place of comfort. When the rich man sought comfort from Abraham, this is what Abraham said, “ ”
These passages teach us that looks can be deceiving. The rich and powerful aren’t as comfortable as they may look on the surface. Under the surface, God may be absent from their lives, kindness and compassion may have fled from their hearts, and any hope of an eternal comfort with God in heaven for all of eternity has been suffocated by their own desire for the comfort of wealth and power in this life. Those who are poor and weak, on the other hand, may look disadvantaged now, but they’re in a better position to develop a relationship with the God of All Comfort.
Is this just propaganda designed to give hope to the poor and weak? Absolutely not! It must be that way, if we have a Creator, if we have a Father in heaven who made us and loves us. Any responsible father who loves his children and wants to build their character knows that he can’t give them everything they want as a child, and he can’t shield them from every difficult situation. Within reason, of course. Fathers want to give their children good things and provide them with security. But we know that if we spoil and overprotect our children, then we make their lives as adults much more difficult. It’s no different with our heavenly Father. His priority is preparing us for eternity, not just providing us with pleasure for only a short time while on this earth. In our eternal home, we’ll be fully mature and ready to live in God’s presence and with all His rich blessings. Now, in the meantime, we’re only being prepared and trained for that home. He doesn’t want us to become distracted now with excessive comforts; although we can enjoy some things in moderation. Instead, He wants our primary ambition to be content with developing the same character of our heavenly Father in every way.
When we’re being persecuted
The third way that the Bible talks about how we can experience God’s comfort is also counterintuitive. In particular, the Bible tells us that we can experience God’s comfort through the persecutions and sufferings of being a Christian.
One of the churches which the apostle Paul helped to establish is the church at Corinth. The church at Corinth encountered many problems after Paul left. One of their problems is that they started to mix worldly philosophies with the Gospel of Christ. They were entertaining other teachers, based on outward appearances and human wisdom. Paul has to remind them, that if they’re looking for the comfort of God, it can’t be found through the values that people of the world typically find impressive. Instead, the comfort of God is most easily found in the sufferings of Christ.
Paul writes this in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He 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. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 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. We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us.”
Suffering for Christ can take many forms. For Paul and his fellow missionaries, they had to endure beatings, imprisonments, and constant psychological distress. For the Corinthians, they also may have had the opportunity to suffer in some of these same ways. But mainly, they had to face the rather typical challenge of being changed from idolaters, sexually immoral, thieves, and the like into righteous, moral, and spiritual citizens in the kingdom of God. That’s difficult. It involves incredible changes in habits and self-discipline. It’s often accompanied by alienation from one’s family and ridicule from friends. On top of that, they were more than likely confronted with many false teachers who were telling them they could receive all the benefits of Christianity without any of the sacrifice. They faced great pressure to disregard the suffering and sacrifice of a Christian in favor of the comfort of the world. However, if they chose that route, they wouldn’t have the opportunity to experience the rich comforts of God.
We face some of the same struggles today as Christians. Throughout the world, people suffer for Christ in many ways. But we can look back at the sufferings of Christ and those who followed Him, like the apostle Paul, and we can be reminded that there is a godly Comfort that outweighs our momentary, light affliction. We experience the Comfort of God today by sticking with His teachings. His teachings provide a steady rock to our tumultuous lives. And the more we’re committed to them, the more we become like Jesus in suffering and comfort. In service and supremacy. In weakness and power. Suffering, service, and weakness in that we’re outwardly insignificant for the sake of others. Comfort, supremacy, and power in that we’re inwardly and spiritually capable of handling anything that may come our way. Of course, we don’t always see what’s on the inside and what awaits us in the future. But our comfort depends on trust in our perfect Teacher and Law-Giver, and that He’s going to do what He promised to do.
Psalm 119 says this, “Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life. The arrogant mock me unmercifully, but I do not turn from your law. I remember, Lord, your ancient laws, and I find comfort in them.”
Romans 15:4–5 says this, “For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope. Now may the God of endurance and comfort give you unity with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus.”
It’s the teachings of God found in the Scripture that give us hope, comfort, and unity with one another. When we resist our own desires, put God and other people first, and persist despite the pressures from others, just as Jesus Christ did, we will find it difficult and challenging. But at the same time, we’ll find encouragement through the teaching of God as found in the Scripture, and we’ll be rewarded with unparalleled peace and comfort.
When we’re grieving death
Finally, the fourth way God comforts His people is through the promise of a resurrection. Experiencing the death of a loved one can be one of the most difficult experiences of our lives. The pain and loss can be devastating, making us inconsolable, and it can seem irreversible. However, this is another type of suffering where our only hope is to look to the Giver of Life and the God of All Comfort. Because those who are faithful to Him have the hope of a resurrection of new and eternal life with Jesus and all other fellow believers.
For example, we read in the Gospel of John, how Jesus Himself faced grief from the loss of a loved one, and how he dealt with it. Lazarus was a dear friend of Jesus, but he falls gravely ill. His sisters, Mary and Martha, who were also very close to Jesus, send word to Him, hoping that He would come and heal Lazarus. However, Jesus delays His journey, and Lazarus dies.
When Jesus finally arrives in Bethany, Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days. Martha goes out to meet Him and expresses her grief, saying, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." Jesus says, "Your brother will rise again." Martha says, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?" Jesus is emphasizing to Martha where her comfort should rest during her moment of loss — that is, in the resurrection promises of Jesus.
Mary also comes to Jesus weeping. Seeing her grief, and that of the others around them, Jesus is deeply moved, and He weeps along with them. It even says that He’s deeply angry. This shows His concern, not only for the shared loss of a loved one, but especially because He wants everyone to believe in Him and to share in the hope He offers in a resurrection.
Jesus then goes to the tomb and, despite the skepticism of the onlookers and the odor of a four-day-old corpse, He commands that the stone be taken away. Jesus prays to the Father and then calls out in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" Then suddenly, Lazarus comes out of the tomb, still wrapped in his grave clothes. He is now alive and well. Jesus proves that He alone as the power and desire to bring about the resurrection from the dead.
This is a promise for all of us. We don’t need to go on grieving the loss of loved one forever. There is comfort for us who are hoping to reunite with loved ones who have died in faith.
1 Thessalonians chapter four offers us this promise, “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”
So, in our times of deepest sorrow, we look to Jesus, the God of All Comfort, who gives us the hope of eternal life and the promise of resurrection. This hope can sustain us, bringing us peace and comfort in the midst of pain and loss.
Summary and Conclusion
Consider your own grief and suffering for a moment. Where do you turn to for comfort in your times of distress? I hope that after listening to this lesson, you might become more familiar with all the ways that the God of All Comfort can help you through your difficult times. The comfort He provides is through forgiveness and partnership with Him, through promises of heavenly wealth and power, through His teachings, and through the promises of an eternal reunion with our loved ones in faith in new, eternal bodies. Any one of these promises are enough to outweigh the comfort we might otherwise find through the things of this world. And all these promises are much more than a warm blanket, dream, or fantasy designed to make us feel good. They’re truth! And in the truth, there is comfort.