Sermon Tone Analysis

*THE COMFORT GOD BRINGS*

*2 Corinthians 1:3-7*

*January 31, 2000**BFuneral: Annie Silas*

*by James A. Bing*

 

One of Alfred Tennyson=s poems describes how the death of her husband in war emptied a woman=s life of all that gave it meaning.

Then someone brought her child and laid him on her knee and then she realized that she still had something to live for, the *care* and *training* of *her child*.

A *sense* of *purpose* returned to fill the gap left by the tragic death of her husband.

The things which can do this for us are numerous, and many of them we can thank God for.

But the best way of escape from *grief* and *despair* is to fix our minds on higher things.

Many 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 a desire to be relieved of pain and not out of love for Him.

 

*Comfort* in the true sense is that which gives us *strength* to face life with *courage* and *hope*.

It opens to us the *resources* of God, for there alone we can find strength.

*Strength* comes from the *assurance* that *God* is *standing by* and that *in Him* we have all that *we need* to meet life courageously.

But more often, this *assurance* of *God**=s presence*, and His *comfort*, is a matter of *faith*.

God may not change our situation or smooth our way, but He *changes us*, and gives us the *confidence* we need for meeting each situation as it comes.

God *changes people*, not circumstances.

He *responds to our obedience to His will* and gives us strength for the difficult road if we meet His requirements.

In Deuteronomy 33:25 we read: A/As your days, so shall your strength be./@

This was the promise God gave to the people of Israel when they set forth to make a home for themselves in the Land of Promise.

God=s promise is that the strain will bring the strength.

\\ This confidence is the root of the courage to meet life in the kind of hope that renews the spirit.

Situations *are not changed for us* but they are often *changed through us*, and God stands by to help us and guide us.

This is our consolation when the going gets tough!

A/My God/,@ said Paul, /Awill supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus//@/ (Philippians 4:19).

The answers of God are always the answers of perfect love.

There is a *rainbow* in every cloud that darkens our sky, and what we really need is to be able to see it.

But the way to the deepest comfort of God in our affliction is to look *outward* and not *inward*.

This is a commonplace of Christian living.

The first disciples of Jesus discovered this when after the Resurrection, Christ sent them out to tell the story of his rising again to the world around them.

Christ died on the Cross that He might live in us and that we might live through Him!

And He has left us this Word of Comfort: A/For our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

While we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen.

For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal//@/ (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).

God *knows*, and *understands* when *your*...*sorrow* becomes great...*heart* becomes broken...*valleys* become lonely...*feelings* become hurt...*pain* becomes unbearable...! He not only knows and understands, He also *cares*!

And He can turn your... *valleys* into victories...*burdens* into blessings...*tears* into triumphs...*gloom* into glory...*weakness* into strength...and your...*heartaches* into hallelujahs...!