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Verse(s) of the Day:  Friday 8th March 2019
“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 that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”   2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV

“the God of all comfort”

Tends to polarise opinions.  And like any “sharing” of my life – if I wish only to talk about myself and this God of all comfort – of my belief in this God – of my relationship with this God – how this God has saved me – how this God has made me the person I never could be otherwise – how this God is the God of all and for all – and that you should have this God too …

I will be shunned not because of my God but because I am a bore.

A self-obsessed bore. A boring person. One who talks only about me and my comfort. One who has no interest in you and your comfort but only that you endorse my “comfort” by agreeing with me.  So the “subject matter” is not what gets me shunned.

I get me shunned.  Me.  No one else.

Perhaps that is why I have come to see evangelising as primarily about me and not you.  About my “success” and not yours.  About me telling you how to heal when I have no idea of your pressures or your coping mechanisms.   A healing like any other “healing” – any medication or therapy – any pill to swallow – any belief to muscle aside my other beliefs.  It is a “conditional” healing.

“the God of all comfort”

Cannot be squeezed into a box of conditional healing.  Comfort is a place of safety devoid of my “stuff” or yours.  My stuff (or yours) of conditions religious and biblical.  Conditions that are beliefs to be swallowed.  Just like any recreational high.  Always with a downer to follow.  Always another upper needed.  A devotional, a prayer, a confession, a worship service, an outreach, a retreat, a “something” else to keep me hooked.

My God of all comfort does not demand any of that.  Does not even demand my time. Does not ever demand my diary. Does not remotely demand I am a good Christian.  Does not demand anything at all.  My God of all comfort does not do transaction.  Because my God of all comfort can only and ever be inside my head. So my God of all comfort is in every desire I can ever have.

“the God of all comfort”

Is my God of presence.  A presence that needs/demands nothing at all.  A presence that offers only what I wish to share.  So a presence that is unconditional in its presence in my head.  An eternal presence if I wish.  But an eternity that can only be in this moment and the next and every moment.

That is why my God is the God of all comfort.

Some find a similar comfort in counselling, in therapy, in pills and tablets, in recreational highs – in “secular solutions”.

I used to.  I still do.  I am as you are I am.  No better no worse.

“the God of all comfort”

Is not conditional upon me and my beliefs.  Comfort is unconditional of belief.

And when we reach “unconditional” then we reach a place of safety for all.  We reach a place of love.  Love without condition.  For without “love without condition” how could my God ever be …

“the God of all comfort”

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