Walking With Christ

2 Corinthians 1:3-4  (3)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.(ESV)

There are things God gives back to us that aren’t meant to stop with us.  Comfort is one of them.  So is wisdom.  So is endurance.  So is the kind of understanding that can only be formed after we’ve walked through something we would never have chosen for ourselves.

When God carries us through affliction, He isn’t merely helping us survive it.  He’s teaching us how to recognize the weight someone else is carrying.  He’s teaching us how to speak with gentleness instead of theory.  He’s teaching us how to offer bread we didn’t know how to make until we had first been broken, humbled, fed, and restored by Him.

That doesn’t mean every wound becomes a ministry, or every hardship needs to be turned into a public testimony.  Some things are meant to remain quiet between us and God.  But it does mean that nothing placed in the hands of Christ is wasted.  The comfort He gives can become comfort we give.  The mercy He shows can become mercy we extend.  The strength He provides can become strength we use to help someone else take the next faithful step.

God often gives back more than He took.  But when He does, we should pay attention.  The question isn’t only, “What has God restored to me?”  The deeper question may be, “Who is this restoration meant to feed?”