Fill in the blank: In this world you will have ____________.
I suspect you know the word: Trouble (or tribulation, depending on the translation in your head). I also suspect you know who spoke those words: Jesus.
These words are in our heads. We know to expect trouble, but trouble still catches us off guard. Maybe that’s why we have this from the apostle Paul:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ” (
The common thread in John 16:33 (the fill-in-the-blank verse above) and 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 is the certainty of trouble. We’re not getting out of it. As much as we think we should, we won’t. Mercifully, God has provided a way to survive. He actually comforts us directly. Think about that: The Creator of the universe comforts us.
However, just as importantly, He comforts us indirectly through people around us. He counts on people to comfort people, which means that after we receive His comfort through our brokenness, He then leads us to people (i.e., a group of teens) who need what we can give. Are we ready or equipped to minister out of the comfort we’ve received? The passage in 2 Corinthians 1 gives us some baby steps to get us moving.
Comfort Steps
1. Identify
You may be in touch with your brokenness. Some scars are quite visible. However, others are less obvious or perhaps are hidden. If brokenness is not easily identifiable, ask God’s Spirit to access the running record of trouble in your life and bring it to your mind. The intent isn’t to dredge up pain, but to make sure we’re being honest with ourselves and not missing an opportunity to redeem, through God’s comfort, something bad in our lives.
2. Receive
What comfort have you received from God? This question of course implies that you have accepted the comfort God offers. Feelings of bitterness or anger are natural and expected; but if they fester, they create walls that block God’s comfort. The Greek word for comfort (parakaleo) paints a picture of God coming alongside our trouble. It’s up to us either to take God’s hand or leave it hanging. Accepting and embracing God’s comfort is necessary before we take the next step. So, take a minute to make a list of ways God has comforted you, and then sit with those ways for a while. Let yourself be immersed in God’s comfort.
3. Minister
The passage in 2 Corinthians 1 is a picture showing how good comes out of bad. Obviously, we’d rather not have the bad; but we will have the bad. Fortunately, just as sure as we can expect trouble, we also can expect to be comforted. In a pay-it-forward sort of way, God asks us to dip into the reservoir of comfort we’ve received from Him and minister to those around us who are knee deep in difficulty. Look at the list you just made of ways God has comforted you in your life. Now cross reference them with the brokenness you’ve observed in your teens. Don’t be surprised at how uncanny the comfort you’ve received lines up with the comfort your teens need.
Say no more. You know what to do.
Barry Shafer lost his first wife, Dana, to cancer and having been comforted mercifully by God, he is committed to passing this comfort along. You can peek into his journey at AJourneyObserved.Blogspot.com. As director of InWord Resources, Barry has written numerous Bible studies and is author of Unleashing God’s Word in Youth Ministry (Youth Specialties/Zondervan). He lives in Middletown, Ohio, with his wife, Jessica.
