There is an old story floating around about a soldier who was wounded in a battle. His commanding officer ordered him to go to the nearest military hospital. When he arrived at the entrance, he saw two doors: one marked “For Minor Wounds,” the other “For Serious Wounds.”
He entered the first door and walked down a long hallway. At the end of the hall, he saw two more doors. The first read “For Officers,” the other “For Enlisted Men.” The soldier went through the second door.
Again, he found himself walking down a long hallway with two doors at the end. One read “For Party Members,” the other “For Non-Party Members.” The wounded soldier took the second door and found himself back out on the street.
When he got back to his unit, his buddies asked, “How'd your trip to the hospital go?”
“The people really didn't help me much,” he replied, “but, man, are they organized!” (Andy Cook, “The Search for God's Own Heart,” Men of Integrity, March/April 2005; www.Preaching Today.com).
There are a lot of people looking for help these days, but they rarely find it. Oh, they might find a lot of bureaucratic red tape, but where do you go to find real help, especially for the soul wounds that take you out of the battle? Where do you go to find healing for your heart?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians 1, 2 Corinthians 1, where the Bible points us to the only source of real help and healing.
2 Corinthians 1:1-2 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (ESV).
Paul introduces himself as “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” At the end of the book, Paul will take four chapters to defend his authority as one of Christ’s apostles (chapters 10-13). So here, at the beginning of the book, he mentions his authority to get his readers ready for what’s coming.
You see, not only did Roman and Jewish officials outside the church persecute Paul. Some within the church questioned his authority and tried to discredit him. Paul endured a lot of pressure and pain, which he could have avoided, except God called him as an apostle and gave him a concern to help people, especially the Corinthian believers.
This book we call 2 Corinthians is actually the 4th letter Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers. The 1st letter Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 5:9 is lost. The 2nd letter is our 1st Corinthians, which addresses various problems in the church. The 3rd letter written “with many tears” (2 Corinthians 2:4) came after Paul made a “painful visit” (2 Corinthians 2:1) to Corinth a few years after he founded the church there. That 3rd letter is also lost, which brings us to the 4th letter Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers, our 2nd Corinthians. Paul wrote 2nd Corinthians as a follow-up to his “painful visit” and tearful letter to encourage the Corinthian believers.
They, like Paul, were experiencing a lot of turmoil from within and without the church. So listen to what he has to say to them and to you and me in any age going through troubling times.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 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).
In the midst of all the turmoil, Paul begins with praise. And that’s where you must begin to find healing for your heart.
PRAISE GOD WHO COMFORTS YOU IN AFFLICTION.
Bless the Lord who helps you when you suffer. Literally, eulogize, or speak well of, the Almighty who strengthens you in your pain.
Don’t blame God. Instead, bless the Lord, who comforts you.
Now, the word "comfort" here has more to do with strengthening than soothing. In other words, God doesn't just relieve your pain; He stiffens your resolve. The Greek word literally means “to come along side of someone.” And that’s what God does when you are hurting. He comes along side of you to give you the courage to keep going.
Bryan Wilkerson, pastor of Grace Chapel in Boston says, “Comfort, according to the Bible, isn't about feeling better; it's about feeling stronger.”
Author Bob Greene describes a season of hurt in his own life. He writes:
When my wife died, I was so numb that I felt dead myself. In the hours after her death, our children and I tried in vain to figure out what to do next, how to get from hour to hour. The next morning—one of those mornings when you awaken, blink to start the day, and then realize anew what has just happened and feel the boulder press you against the earth with such weight that you fear you will never get up—the phone rang, and it was Jack.
I didn't want to hear any voice—even my friend's. I just wanted to cover myself with darkness. I knew he'd be asking if there was anything he could do, and I didn't know what to tell him. It turned out he'd already done it.
"I'm in Chicago," he said. "I took the first flight this morning. I know you probably don't want to see anyone. That's alright. I've checked into a hotel, and I'll just sit in the room in case you need me to do anything. I can do anything you want, or I can do nothing."
He meant it. He knew the best thing he could do was to be present in the same town. So he sat there—until I gathered the strength to say I needed him. Then he sat with me and knew I did not require conversation, did not welcome chatter, did not need anything beyond the knowledge that he was there … Then he helped me with things no man ever wants to need help with. He brought food for my children, and he got me through those days" (Bryan Wilkerson, Beyond Comfort, www.PreachingToday.com).
My dear friends, that’s what God does for you, only more so! Your earthly friends can only do so much. Eventually, they have to go home. Eventually, their strength runs out. Eventually, they have their own problems to deal with. On the other hand, God never leaves, and His strength never runs out.
So bless the Lord! Bless the Lord, who not only comforts you!
Bless the Lord, who gives you enough comfort to share. Verse 4 says, “[He] 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.” God comforts you so you can comfort others.
Pastor Bryan Wilkerson tells the story of a woman named Pat:
Quite a few years ago, after 26 years of marriage, two awful things happened at almost the same time. Her husband was stricken with cancer and then announced he was leaving her for another woman. She experienced sickness, loss, and betrayal all at once. Their two sons, 23 and 26 at the time, went into a tailspin.
There was no one in her family she could turn to, so she turned to the Lord, and he provided her with everything she needed to get through. She was part of a prayer group that rallied round her. One of the members became a mentor to her and called her every morning to help start her day. She went to the Scriptures and found they came alive for her like never before, particularly the Book of Psalms and the story of Joseph.
Looking back, Pat says, "it was the worst time in my life, but it was the best time in my life, because the Lord became so close and real to me. He pressed into my life moment by moment, day by day."
Day by day she gained strength; so much strength, in fact, that before she had even emerged from her own grief, she found herself caring for others. She became involved with the grief share group at church, which she still facilitates to this day.
She says, "I used to be afraid of people with cancer and people who were suffering. I kept my distance. Now I'm not afraid anymore."
Bryan Wilkerson says, “Most people coming through an experience like that would want to get as far away from it as possible. But when God gives you comfort, it's not just enough to get you through, it's enough to give away (Bryan Wilkerson, Beyond Comfort, www.PreachingToday.com).
Someone once asked the late psychiatrist Karl Menninger what a person should do who feels on the verge of a nervous breakdown. His advice? “Lock your house, go across the railroad tracks, find someone in need, and do something for him” (Quoted by Bruce Larson in “A Call to Holy Living,” Christianity Today, Vol. 34, no. 13; www.PreachingToday.com).
If you want to heal your heart, help someone who has lost heart. Bless the Lord, who comforts you. Bless the Lord, who gives you enough comfort to share, and bless the Lord, who increases His comfort as your afflictions increase.
2 Corinthians 1:5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too (ESV).
God gives greater strength for greater suffering, not only for you, but for those who share in your suffering.
2 Corinthians 1:6-7 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort (ESV).
Shared suffering brings shared comfort. One commentator said, “One of the many paradoxes of the Christian life is that the grace of God is most keenly experienced not in the best but in what seem to be the worst of times…” (David Lowery, Bible Knowledge Commentary).
Everett Koop, former surgeon general of the United States recalls a family whose severely handicapped child he delivered and helped to keep alive after birth. He writes, “I asked the child's mother, ‘What's the worst thing that ever happened to you?’
"She said, ‘Having our son Paul Born with defects that required thirty-seven operations to correct.’
“Then I asked, ‘What's the best thing that ever happened to you?’
“She said, ‘Having our son Paul born with defects that required thirty-seven operations to correct.’”
Koop goes on to explain: “I know what she means. It's been terribly hard on them, but, through the experience, they've grown enormously as a family. They've had a remarkable spiritual reawakening.”
Koop reported that one of their sons entered law school, planning to defend the rights of the handicapped. Paul ended up having more than 55 operations, but despite the hardships, it's been an overwhelmingly positive experience for them (Ben Patterson, "A Faith Like Mary's," Preaching Today, Tape No. 87; www.PreachingToday.com).
I like what Christian philosopher Simone Weil once said: “The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering but a supernatural use for it” (Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace, Routledge, 2002, p. 81; www.PreachingToday.com).
Oh, my dear friends, is your heart breaking? Then turn your pity party into a praise party and bless the Lord! Bless the Lord, who comforts you. Bless the Lord, who gives you enough comfort to share, and bless the Lord, who increases His comfort even as your afflictions increase. To find healing for your heart, praise God who comforts you in affliction. Then…
TRUST GOD WHO DELIVERS YOU FROM AFFLICTION.
Depend on the Lord who saves you from all your troubles. Rely on the Almighty who rescues you from your suffering.
2 Corinthians 1.8-9a For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.
No one is sure what “affliction [Paul] experienced in Asia.” In 1 Corinthians 15:32, Paul mentions “fighting with beasts in Ephesus,” a city in Asia Minor (now Turkey), which may be a metaphor for the troubles he experienced there when he escaped a riot (Exodus 19:23-41).
Later on, in the book of 2 Corinthians, Paul will report, “Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure” (2 Corinthians 11:24-27).
Paul despaired of life many times during his ministry. Now, why would God allow such trouble?
2 Corinthians 1:9b But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead (ESV).
God allows trouble in your life to force you to rely on Him. So put your hope in God like Paul did, not in yourself.
2 Corinthians 1:10-11 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many (ESV).
Paul puts his hope in God, asking God’s people to pray for him. You do the same in the midst of your trouble. Put your hope in God. Rely on the One who rescues you, asking people to pray for you.
William Barclay, in his commentary on 2 Corinthians, says, “Paul saw that the terrifying experience he had gone through had had one tremendous use: it had driven him back to God and demonstrated to him his utter dependence on him.
“The Arabs have a proverb: ‘All sunshine makes a desert.’ The danger of prosperity is that it encourages a false independence; it makes us think that we are perfectly capable of handling life alone. For every one prayer that rises to God in days of prosperity, 10,000 rise in days of adversity. As Abraham Lincoln had it, ‘I have often been driven to my knees in prayer because I had nowhere else to go…’”
Barclay continues, “[We often need] some time of adversity to show us how much we need God. The outcome was that Paul had an unshakable con?dence in God. He knew now beyond all argument what he could do for him. If God could bring him through that, he could bring him through anything (Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians).
Trouble increased Paul’s confidence in God, and trouble will do the same for you if you open yourself up to Him. Please, don’t resist the Lord in your pain. Instead, rely on the Lord to bring you through.
Skye Jethani, senior editor for Leadership Journal, talks about being in Cape Town, South Africa, for a gathering of world Christian leaders from 200 countries. One of the speakers was the Anglican archbishop of Jos, Nigeria. His name is Benjamin Kwashi, and he shared a story that was horrific and inspiring at the same time.
Jos, this city in Nigeria, has been rocked by sectarian violence for years now, primarily between Christians and Muslims. There have been endless cycles of violence and vengeance and hundreds of people killed. In March of 2009, a gang of people broke into the bishop's house to kill him. He wasn't home, but his wife was. They did unspeakable things to her, and they beat her and left her for dead. He found her, and she was still alive, but she spent most of the following year in recovery.
A year to the day after this gang beat her, in March of 2010, they came back. They broke into his home again, and this time they did find Benjamin. They dragged him out of his house, and they were about to kill him. They had machetes and clubs. Benjamin asked for just a moment to pray before they began. So he knelt there on the dirt and began to pray.
A moment later he felt someone holding his hand. He looked up, and it was his wife. Sky Jethani says, “I still can't believe the courage of that woman. She could have run, but instead she broke through this line of the same people who had attacked her a year ago and knelt with her husband to pray with him, knowing that her life was over as well.”
And then a moment later, he felt someone holding his other hand. He looked, and it was his teenage son. Benjamin begged his son to leave so that he wouldn't be killed as well. And his son said, “Father, they've all left. They're all gone.”
Why did they leave? Benjamin said he has no idea, and he knows they'll be back (Skye Jethani, from the sermon “Church: The Wisdom of God on Display,” www.Preachingtoady.com).
They left, because the bishop and his wife were kneeling in the dirt in prayer. Like Paul, they relied on the Lord who rescued them. Now, God could have allowed the murderous gang to kill them, but that would have led only to their ultimate rescue. They would have escaped all this world’s troubles for heaven itself.
Dear friends, please, trust the Lord to rescue you. 1st, trust God to rescue you from sin—Put your trust in Christ who died for your sins and rose again. Then, trust God to rescue you in times of suffering until the day He takes you home to glory.
To find healing for your heart, praise God who comforts you in affliction, and trust God who delivers you from affliction.
As an envoy for the Church of England, Terry Waite traveled to Lebanon in 1987 trying to secure the release of four hostages. Instead, Islamic Jihad terrorists kidnapped him and held him captive for 1,763 days, just two months shy of five years. Waite spent most of that time in solitary confinement and was finally released on November 18, 1991.
Soon after his release, he said, “I have been determined in captivity, and still am determined, to convert this experience into something useful and good for other people. I think that's the way to approach suffering. It seems to me that Christianity doesn't in any way lessen suffering. What is does is enable you to take it, to face it, to work through it, and eventually to convert it (Terry Waite, quoted in Church Times Dec. 27,1991, Christianity Today, Vol. 36, no. 7; www.PreachingToday.com).
My dear friends, as God strengthens you, determine to convert your suffering into something useful. Just praise God in the pain and trust Him to use it for His glory.
