Our God Comforts Study

Before doing this study, please read the introductory 1-minute devotion When You Sink into Despair.

We have a false concept of love in America. We think that a loving God should make our lives easy and comfortable. But genuine love is not about making life easy for us—it’s about allowing things in our lives that make us stronger, more faithful, and godlier.

We could compare this with parenting: the worst parents are those who make their children’s lives easy, giving them everything they want. This damages a child’s growth and character. See "Giving in to Our Children". 

Sometimes we forget that people who serve and love God faithfully still face serious trials. This can make us so discouraged that we feel like God has abandoned us. That's Satan tempting us to unbelief. 

We can be confident that God is always with us and eager to comfort us, and the verses below can help. 

1. 2 Corinthisan 1:3-5

This verse not only tells us that God is the Source of all comfort, it tells us that God’s comfort multiplies as we share it with others. 

2 Corinthians 1:3-5:  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 

2.  John 16:32-33

A key point in the passage below is that we are not home yet. Our home is in heaven. In heaven all things will be perfect, but in our fallen world we will have troubles. Jesus promises it. 

John 16:32-33: Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. 33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” 

3. 1 Peter 1:3-9

This is a great passage to memorize, ponder, and dwell on, especially when we're suffering. God's love makes it all worthwhile. I pray that we will better understand this truth.

1 Peter 1:3-9: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

copyright, Gail Burton Purath, 2013, BiteSizeBibleStudy.com, edited and updated in 2021