suffering leads to comfort

Sitting here and briefly reflecting on my life up to this point, whenever I felt comfort, there was something that I had to go through to feel that way. 

That is because suffering leads to comfort.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of 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 1:3-5)

I am sure you've heard that God comforts us right? It's easy to think that when God comforts us, our troubles should go away. But if that were always so, people would turn to God only out of desire to be relieved of pain and not out of love for him. 

Our troubles are a blessing in disguise and God comforting us rather than just taking them all away is crucial to our relationship in Christ Jesus. If God automatically took all our troubles away anytime we faced hardships, we would never grow. There wouldn't even be a reason to have faith if that were the case...life would be perfect. 

Good thing it's not, because we need to turn to Christ out of love for him.

We must understand that being comforted can also mean receiving strength, encouragement, and hope to deal with our troubles.

The more we suffer, the more we go through, and the more hardships we face, the more comfort God gives to us. If you are feeling overwhelmed, allow God to comfort you. God is there to comfort us with open arms, we just have to open up. As much as God is there to comfort us, we have to be vulernable and turn to God for the comfort he gives us. 

The charge? Remember that every trail you endure will help you comfort other people who are suffering similar trails. Nobody is perfect, and we all face hardships everyday. Let's love each other, and encourage one another because God's compassion and comfort that he gives us is too great to keep to ourselves.