Growing in Faith During Your Baby's First Year - a 6 Day DevotionalSample

Hard-Won Comfort

Paul wrote to the church in Corinth his praise to the God of compassion

“who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any

trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” (2 Corinthians

1:4 NIV). It is a beautiful sentiment, but it is easy to gloss over how hard-won

this comfort He offers is. Paul wrote, “We were under great pressure,

far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself” (v. 8

NIV). This is comfort gained amid life’s harshest difficulties. Notice: God

did not prevent their hardships. He was with them in the midst.

Sometimes I don’t want God the Deliverer. I want God the Preventer.

I want the “Get out of jail free” card, not the “God will be with me in the

midst of jail” card. But God often works this way. He didn’t prevent the

fiery furnace; He was in it. He didn’t stop the tempest before it ever started

for the disciples, but He was on the boat when the waves were crashing.

In some ways, motherhood feels like this line from Paul: “We were

under great pressure, far beyond our ability.” Maybe you feel that way

some days too. How good to know that while God may not deliver us from

that feeling, He is there in the midst of the pressure, in the midst of the

difficulty. And He will use the hard-won comfort that you receive from

Him in the midst of it to comfort someone else.