Pandemic Preaching - God Offers Comfort to All

The Rescue

"All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too." 2 Corinthians 1;3-5

Thanksgiving in Trials

God is the original comic. He is so natural at it, He doesn't need to try, He is just so naturally funny and fun to be with. He is like a dad that you cannot live with but also one you cannot live without.

His sense of humor eventually rubs off on us, His children, that is if we spend enough time in His presence and His Word.

If we do we can be like the Apostle Paul, who in the midst of his pain and his troubles, has found it timely to be joyful and thankful for the trials he was going through and write the earliest churches about it.

How, Why, What?

How could Paul, who instead of being angry at God because of the misery he was going through (for the sake of the gospel), be thankful to Him?

I mean, it doesn't make sense. It does however when you yourself undergo trials of your own and realize that God is right there in the middle of your pain and your troubles. Our heavenly Father is right there with us. But we wouldn't know until we are right there. If that isn't funny, I don't know what else is.

Joy, Peace, Love, Hope, Comfort

And this is why Paul, in his pain and suffering, found joy (not fleeting happiness but real joy) in the midst of anything else he might be going through, both the good times and the bad.

He experienced God's comfort -- God's love, His presence and His wisdom when He was going through his troubles.

And that is why he understood that he had to go through them. Because he will have to go walk with others who will be going through the same things he had.

So without the comfort, the love, the joy and the peace that he received from God Our Father, he had nothing to help them with but his intellectual prowess and maybe his money which however amount one might have amassed will never really be enough to give anyone real love, real joy, real peace, real satisfaction.

Pandemic or No Pandemic

If you are going through hard times, if you have pain in your body, if you are sick, if you are going through hunger, depression, homelessness, loneliness, hopelessness, anything... be still. And seek Him, the God of all mercy and comfort.

He is waiting for you to find Him in His Word, His love letter for you in the pages of the bible. His presence is waiting for you. Spend quiet time with Him. Find a church, a community of true believers. Somebody there would have already gone through what you are going through right now.

That person already has the comfort that you need. To that person, you are the reason why he/she went through his/her own hard times.

Jesus of Nazareth, Himself lived among us, lived like us, to go through everything we are going through.

Why? So He will have not (google, siri or alexa) knowledge but compassion and understanding, because He knows what we are going through, because as a human being He went through them with the presence of His Father, who was there with Him.

Reach out to God. Pandemic or not, He is waiting.

Pandemic Preaching Series