Take a deep breath...tell me all about it.

A bit about the God we serve.

2 Corinthians 1:3 HCSB

Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

Praise and worship is an important part of our relaitonship with God. In fact NCA leans on three basic principles, everything we do has to fit into one of those three areas. the first is to reach up. We praise, we worship, we pray, we listen. All part of reaching up. Paul gives us a couple of reasons for this praise.

He is the father of mercies

He is the God of Comfort.

It’s been a bad day

God sees us, he knows where we are, he understands what is going on in our lives, h knows how we act and react and what is happening when we feel alone, or abandoned, or ill used. Paul talks about that.

2 Corinthians 1:4 HCSB

He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

We need to understand the importance of communication with God the importance of reaching up to him, when we reach up to him he reaches down to us.

(talk about wanting to comfort amberly as a kid) the bandaid on the ear thing. All I wanted to do was comfort her to make it okay and so I remember holding her and rocking her back and forth and singing to her. THis was a theme in all my children’s lives. Dad holding, dad rocking them back and forth dad wandering the floors at night singing to them. Comforting them when they were hurting or aflicted or sad. And this is what God does but he does so for more than just our good feelings.

Being his hands…his arms…his voice.

The reason that God comforts us is so that we can comfort others, he models the behaviors we are supposed to model, he shows us how we are to interact with the world at large, with people that are lost and hurting and afraid. We are to comfort those in ANY KIND OF AFFLICTION…this is important .The word for affliction here is thlipsis it translates as tribluation, affliction, trouble, anguish, persecution, burden, oppression, and distress. The cause and effect here is important, especially for us, and make no mistake comforting those dealing with all of those issues is not the easy part of our faith on the contrary it is one of the hardest things we will do, mainly because of where our comfort is coming from.

The truth about true Christian Faith

This next bit is not something that we like. In fact i would venture to guess that no one likes this next bit. There has been in some corners of christianity and I use that term loosley here an idea. This idea stands in direct opposition to the life that Christ lived, and the life that we are called too. Now before I go any further listen closely. I want to answer some of the questions or accusations that may be creeping into your head before I move on.

No money is not evil

No it’s not wrong to be healthy

It is okay to have a house and a car and nice things

It’s okay to pray for God’s blessings here on earth.

It’s good to recognize the blessings of God that are visible in some peoples lives. BUT

Some Christians are more worried about the physical appearance of being blessed and cared for and comforted than they are about the reality of the state of their relationship with God.

In the sermon on the mount we see Jesus talking about who is truly blessed, and yet many times we look at people who are experincing or embody those characteristics and we see them as not just less than blessed but as something to be hidden, or taught to be blessed by human standards. Yet this is what Paul tells the Corinthians when it comes to this whole idea of comforting the afflicted, and where that abilty to comfort comes from.

2 Corinthians 1:5–7 HCSB

For as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so through Christ our comfort also overflows. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is experienced in your endurance of the same sufferings that we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will share in the comfort.

The comfort we should be looking for is not born out of our matieral blessings. It is born from the realization that if we are truly becoming more like Christ then we will be able to see the one even when 99 are screaming but look how comfortable we are. IF we are becoming more like Christ it means that we will find our comfort, not in the number of friends we have, or the number of people that follow us, or the great things we have or do. it will come from the realization that God is leading and guiding us through hard angry difficult times so that we can in turn look to our right or our left and see others going through that same thing and be Christs hands and feet. We can comfort them, we can understand them, we can understand because as we suffer with them and deal with the things they are dealing with we understand that it’s for one purpose, to allow us be a comfort to those that are at any given moment going through things that no one should have to go thorough and in doing so we are able to share what true blessing is.

Look at vs 7 again

2 Corinthians 1:7 HCSB

And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will share in the comfort.

The comfort that Paul is talking about does not come from an easy life, a fat bank account, a beautiful home, and a great business. It comes from enduring the trials and strains and sufferings that we do, just as Christ did. The reason to me and I stress this to me is simple, which makes it so hard for people to accept.

All of those things. Money, Health, A nice home, a nice car, a thriving business, can all be, if we want, attributed to hard work and dedication. The idea of pesevereance, of pulling yourself up of making something of yourself.

But living and moving and walking through tragedy, through loss, through pain, through rejection and coming out on the other side, not bitter, not angry, not full of spite and hate. That takes more than we as humans, fallen humans at that can really muster on our own. That takes the power and comfort and giftings that come from the Holy Spirit living and active in our lives. It is, I believe why when a person comes to the realization that they need Jesus to come into their lives and make them into what they were designed to be, to come into their lives and give them a new life, loving them forgiving them, offering them grace and then leading them through the suffering. That is the blssing we are to be after. The blessing that comes from a real active relationship with the one that died for us. Being willing to suffer through the mess because he did and then to reach to others with hands and feet and hearts scarred and bruised and hurting because that is what suffering can and does create.

This Week’s Challenge

Take stock of what being blessed means to you…then fact check it against Matthew 5:1-11. If your reason for being blessed is more about the things you have ask God to show you what needs to change.