What do you think of when you think of being “comfortable?”

Thinking of being comfortable . . .

Perhaps it is having enough money to do what you want instead of having to watch a monthly budget.

Or, it could mean physical comfort – like nothing hurts. Or the space you are residing in is just the right temperature. The mattress isn’t too soft or too firm, it’s just right.

Also, there is relational comfort. Being comfortable with yourself, comfortable in your “own skin,” comfortable with relationships of friends and/or family.

The literal definition of comfort refers to two different things:

It is a state of physical ease and freedom from pain or things that constrain us.

The easing or alleviation of our feelings of grief or distress.

Or, comfort, “to comfort” is something we actually “do” to and for ourselves or someone else. We “comfort” them (relieve them of their distress) by our actions and words.

A beautiful thing about God is God is the ultimate comforter.

It’s one of the reasons we don’t have to fear death and dying because we’ve been given a glimpse of what ultimate comfort looks and feels like!

The Apostle Paul started multiple churches, but one of the most prominent ones was in Corinth. When Paul wrote the church in Corinth, he’d lived through very difficult times. He was even at odds with some of the people he’d led to encounter the resurrected Christ. They were all familiar with the troubles of persecution for being followers of Jesus, but yet they found reason to rest in comfort. Check out these words,

“God comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.”

Paul writes that God comforts us, and because of that we, too,  can comfort one another.

Scholar William Barclay said “Comfort in the New Testament always means far more than soothing sympathy. Always it is true to its root meaning, for its root is the Latin fortis and fortis means brave. Christian comfort is the comfort which brings courage and enables a man to cope with all that life can do to him.”

Can you think of a time that you’ve been in a very difficult circumstance and have been able to find peace and comfort by resting in the eternal presence of Love?

That’s God’s comfort and it’s a comfort that is unwavering and unfailing.

Could you share that comfort with someone today?