A very comforting passage of Scripture is found in 2
Corinthians 1:3-7. The word “comfort” or “consolation” (English Standard
Version) appears nine times in these five verses. Read it and see. It is
surprising, then, at least to some, to observe that the second most common word
in the same passage is “tribulation” or “trouble” or “suffering” which appear
at least seven times! Many in modern America and some in the modern church see
incongruity in the words “comforted in all our tribulations” (vs 4a). Modern
culture and Christians are much more apt to believe we can be comforted only
when we come “out” of our trouble and tribulations, not while “in” them! Yet
the apostle Paul proclaims that is exactly what God does for His children. A
church marquee sign said, “I’m too blessed to be distressed.”
Catchy and cute, but not true. That “sentence sermon” not
so subtly suggests that to be blessed means God allows no distress in my life –
and no message could be more unbiblical! No Bible character of note, from Job
to Jesus, escaped all distress. Some experienced it in great degree and long
duration. Does it seem suffering has singled you out and stuck to you like
chewing gum on the bottom of a shoe? Are you so distressed you can't possibly
think of yourself as blessed? Does it feel like God must be too busy with other
people’s problems to pay attention to you and your pain? If so, call up and fix
on the description of Jesus in Isaiah 53:3 that declares He was “a Man of
sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (NIV
“familiar with suffering”). Religious writer Philip Yancey wrote a book
about dealing with adversity entitled, Disappointment With God. In it he wrote, “Is life fair? Read the
story of Jesus and ask yourself, ‘Was life fair to Him?’ The cross demolished
for all time the basic assumption that life will be fair.” Jesus was distressed, but blessed.
We are blessed and always have reason to rejoice in the
Lord (Ephesians 1:3; Philippians 4:4, etc.). But the notion being blessed means
a total lack of distress cannot be found in the Bible. Quite the contrary (Job
14:1; Romans 8:18; James 1:2-4; John 16:33, etc.). The certainty of troubles in
life and the difficulty they can cause reminds me of these words from Demetri
Martin – “I was riding the escalator, and I tripped. I fell down the stairs for
an hour and a half.” In 2 Corinthians 1:8 we observe that the apostle Paul knew
the feeling that comes when problems and pressure knock you down. There Paul
wrote of “our trouble which came to us
in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we
despaired even of life.” We don’t know Paul’s exact circumstances, but the
suffering he faced seemed to him as though it was about to kill him! He felt it
unlikely he would live through it. Can you identify? He was greatly distressed.
But he went on to write of being blessed in verses 9-10 – “Yes, we had the
sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in
God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver
us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us."
Theodore E. Steinway once noted, “In one of our grand
pianos, 243 taut strings exert a pull of 40,000 pounds on an iron frame. It is
proof that out of great tension may come great harmony.” The cross of Christ is
proof that even in great distress we are still blessed, if we belong to Christ.
Think about it.
--Dan Gulley
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