“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 KJV)
Comfort. Five times in two verses. Why comfort? So many want victory! Some want restitution. Others don’t want to be in a position like that at all. Comfort is literally to call near. This implies that comfort is much more than an assurance of better times yet to come. Can there be value in “being near” that transcends a better end outcome? Perhaps something so valuable that you’re not even concerned with the end state?
There is an inherent challenge in this line of thought. We like to think of things as either getting better or getting worse; thus more concerned with the perceived outcome than what is present. We actually find that the best comfort is nearness (versus distance). You may have seen that those in great sorrow are often best comforted by a friend who is near rather than what that friend is (or is not) able to do. To know a “God of all comfort”, who comforts in tribulation, and to receive that comfort from God is also to understand that learning the nearness of the Lord can be at least as important as dealing with that tribulation. In fact, it is important enough that it is something that we need to learn well enough to be able to reciprocate to others.
“But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.” (Psalms 73:28 KJV)