My grandpa loved to tell the story of letting my dad drive a tractor when he was a young child. My dad sat on his dad’s lap with his small hands on the steering wheel as they drove over smooth ground. But when they hit a rough patch of bumpy road and the steering wheel bounced erratically, he would throw his hands in the air and yell, “Take it, Dad!” 

In a similar way, our suffering causes us to cry out to our Heavenly Father for help. When life is smooth, we are often lulled into thinking we can handle things on our own. Then the rocky patches come and we have no choice but to throw up our hands and plead with Him to pull us through. 

This month we’re walking through 2 Corinthians 1 and seeing how God cares for us and teaches us in affliction. We’ve seen God’s comfort and the hope He gives. This week we see in verses 8-9 that our affliction teaches us to rely on God: 

“For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9)

In these verses, Paul told the Corinthians about his severe suffering—trials so severe that Paul and his companions hoped death would come quickly. But Paul saw God’s purpose in the pain. 

Like Paul, when our suffering pushes us to deeper reliance on the Lord, we find He is there, gripping the wheel, guiding us through the hard times. Our greater reliance on Him is a gift He gives us by His grace. 

And our reliance on Him is not in vain. When Paul felt he’d received a death sentence, he needed nothing less than One who raises the dead to life. God has proved Himself to be worthy of our reliance, our hope, and our trust. He is sufficient to see us through every affliction. 

No matter what you face this week, God will use your suffering to grow your reliance on Him. 

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Last month, as Hurricane Ian battered the Florida coast, the water and wind were so strong that even giant slabs of concrete couldn’t stand their ground. When a storm that powerful comes along, there’s not much that is left unshaken. And yet, in 2 Corinthians, Paul wrote about having a hope that is unshaken, no matter how bad the storm gets. 

This month we’re studying the lessons we learn from affliction in 2 Corinthians 1. Last week we saw how God is our comfort from 2 Corinthians 1:3-5. In the next two verses, we see how God uses affliction to develop patient endurance and unshakeable hope in His children. 

“If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” (2 Corinthians 1:6-7)

Paul knew from experience that as the Corinthians suffered affliction, they would need patience and endurance to persevere. This was Paul’s unshaken hope for them: that by the power of God’s Spirit, as they would endure because of God’s comfort. 

We see a similar line of thought in Paul’s letter to the Romans: 

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:3-5)

Our dependence on God’s comfort isn’t just wishful thinking or hoping for a possible outcome, like we might hope for good weather or a winning football team. When we endure suffering and receive God’s comfort, God gives us hope that cannot be shaken by our circumstances. 

As Paul says in Romans, this hope does not put us to shame. We experience God’s presence and provision in hard times, and our confidence in His comfort grows. So the next time we walk through trials, we can more patiently endure because we know we have His comfort in every moment. 

No matter what you face this week, God’s comfort gives us unshaken hope. 

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I have a 13-year-old daughter, and as I watch her navigate junior high, I’m reminded regularly that it’s not easy being a 13-year-old girl. I’m grateful that she has the love and support of her dad and two older brothers. But as her mother, my shoulder is uniquely prepared for her to cry on, because I’ve been a teenage girl and experienced all the affliction that comes along with it. Now I can comfort my daughter – or at least I can try in those rare moments when she doesn’t have earbuds in her ears. 🙂 

For the next few weeks, we are going to look at 2 Corinthians 1, where we’ll see several lessons we learn from times of affliction. When Paul wrote this letter to the Christians in Corinth, he had a complicated, turbulent relationship with them. But they had this common bond: they belonged to God and shared in His comfort and mercy. 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, 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. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-5) 

In these verses, Paul described God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort. In fact, he repeated himself – mentioning God’s comfort four times in just three verses. Paul obviously didn’t want us to miss this point: in times of affliction, God is our comfort. 

Sometimes I wonder if God is tired of hearing about my problems, like He’s a bored friend who wishes you’d get it over already and move on. But God’s comfort has no limits, because He is perfect and infinite. He knows all things, including our innermost thoughts. The comfort He gives is the perfect comfort of the faithful Heavenly Father. 

The comfort God gives is so abundant that it will overflow from us to others. As we receive God’s comfort, we’re also being prepared to share that comfort with others. Just as God works through others to comfort us in our affliction, He can use us to give His comfort to others. 

No matter what you face this week, God will abundantly pour out His comfort. 

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For the past two weeks, we’ve been looking at 1 John 3:1 and learning about God’s lavish love and our adoption as His children. This week we’ll look at the last four verses of this verse: “and so we are.” 

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 John 3:1)

I realize at this point, you might think I’m a little crazy for writing a devotional on these four words. There’s no big theology words here, no action verbs, none of the typical words we like to talk about like grace or mercy or peace. 

But John included these words for a reason. He’s just written about this love of the Father that should cause us to stop and pay attention, because this love causes us to be adopted as His children. And then John puts a giant exclamation mark at the end of this point—God’s love for His children accomplishes its purpose. It’s not just God’s intention to adopt us. All those who receive the Father’s saving love belong to Him. 

These four words emphasize God’s faithfulness to His promises. He tells us in His Word that those who trust in Him will not be put to shame because He holds us securely (Romans 5:5). And so we are. 

These four words also point to our future inheritance with Him. In the next verse, John writes that one day we will be like Him because we are His children. Paul also teaches this truth in Romans 8:16-17: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” 

God’s Spirit confirms this fact: those who have been saved by God’s grace are His children and heirs with Christ who will be glorified with Him. God has lavished His love on us and made us His children – and so we are, now and forever. 

No matter what you face this week, God has made you His child, and so you are. 

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