If our current culture could be boiled down to one thing, it would have to be fixation on self. We are acutely aware of every ache and desire clamoring within heart and soul. No wonder we are so bent on self-soothing!
But when we turn to God for the comfort we need? Everything changes. Not only does God become our consummate Comforter, but we also become something else: We become the Comforted of God.
Learning to live as one of the comforted has been a process for me. I need practice, as my old habits and old self have been conditioned to pursue false comforts.
One way I’m putting on this new self is by viewing God’s comfort as more than something I merely receive; it is something I get to pass on to others. In 2 Corinthians, Paul explains that God’s comfort is given “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” (1:3–5, ESV). Like a flowing stream, true comfort is meant to be ever on the move, refreshing many.
And the comforted? We get to keep it in motion, as God’s comfort agents to a world in need. When we practice finding our comfort in God, not only will we find the comfort our hearts crave, but we will become a source of God’s comfort for others. And that truly changes everything.
Erin Straza is the author of Comfort Detox: Finding Freedom from Habits That Bind You (InterVarsity Press). Learn more at ErinStraza.com. Adapted from Comfort Detox by Erin Straza. Copyright © 2017 by Erin Straza. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, P.O. Box 1400, Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426. www.ivpress.com.
