One of my most vivid memories of craving comfort was when I had my first child. I remember thinking to myself, I may never sleep or shower again! How could something so cute and so small scream so loudly, eat so much, and explode so many diapers? And how could this adult woman suddenly, overnight, become such an irritable, emotional mess? Those were challenging days as I learned how to be a mom and care for my new baby. I felt my neediness profoundly.<\/p>\n
On my husband\u2019s day off from work, he encouraged me to take a break in between feedings and do something that would refresh me. He knew I needed rest. But what I really craved was comfort: a sense of reassurance that I was going to make it and that this little guy I loved so much would one day sleep through the night.<\/p>\n
So the next few times my husband had a day off from work, I left the house for that small window of time in between feedings. One week, I drove straight to Target and simply walked up and down the aisles, mostly in a sleep-deprived daze. The next week, I went to Sonic and got a soda, because there\u2019s something comforting about that Sonic ice and a cold drink in the middle of the day. But my most regular haunt became the local bookstore. I\u2019d go straight to the magazine aisle, grab the latest pop culture magazines, and sit in the cafe with a coffee, thumbing through the pages.<\/p>\n
After a few weeks of this, I remember heading home from my outing, turning onto my street, and realizing I knew more about the latest celebrities and their marriages and divorces, but I had not truly rested.<\/p>\n
I was looking for comfort, but I was looking in all the wrong places.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re made to seek comfort. <\/h2>\n
You may not have experienced this exact scenario, but you have likely lived through a difficult season that sent you searching for comfort.<\/p>\n
We all seek comfort, consolation, assurance, and security. We want to know that everything is going to be OK, especially when we are suffering or life feels out of control. Seeking comfort is a natural human response to difficulty, and \u2014 this is important to note \u2014 it\u2019s a response built into us by God. In other words, there is nothing wrong with seeking comfort. But as I learned in the early days of motherhood, it matters how and where we seek that comfort.<\/p>\n
In 2 Corinthians 1:3, the apostle Paul tells us where comfort is found: \u201cthe God of all comfort.\u201d We\u2019re to go to God, because He is comfort, and He comforts us in all our afflictions. This word comfort means \u201creassurance, encouragement, or consolation.\u201d To comfort is to alleviate or lessen grief, sorrow, or disappointment. This is what God does for us. He doesn\u2019t always remove our afflictions, but through His presence with us, He alleviates or lessens the blows of our griefs, sorrows, and disappointments.<\/p>\n
But God does so much more for us than simply soften the blows. This word comfort also means \u201cto strengthen\u201d or \u201cto come alongside.\u201d In other words, God comforts us not just with His presence but also with His power \u2014 the Holy Spirit indwelling every believer. We can think of God\u2019s comfort as His power pushing from the inside out, empowering us to face what we\u2019re facing, enabling us to do what in our own strength we cannot do, like enduring unwanted circumstances with courage and faith.<\/p>\n
Sometimes when we experience deep affliction, people around us feel ill-equipped to respond or feel scared by our circumstances and, as a result, they disengage. They don\u2019t know what to do or say, and their lack of response can actually add to our pain. But God\u2019s constant presence and His promise that He won\u2019t ever leave us are a balm. There\u2019s nothing we endure apart from Him. There\u2019s no affliction He\u2019s not willing to enter. He\u2019s not afraid of our suffering or impatient with our response to it. He\u2019s not disgusted with our struggles or disengaged from them. In fact, Psalm 34:18 says that God is close to the brokenhearted. He\u2019s like a first responder: He runs into the crisis. He runs toward those who are afflicted and in need and offers them comfort.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re meant to share comfort.<\/h2>\n
God comforts us so that we will be consoled and strengthened, but He also comforts us \u201cso that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God\u201d (2 Cor. 1:4). <\/p>\n
We\u2019re given comfort we can then share with others. First, God shares Himself with us. We receive His comfort through His presence and His power. Then the \u201cme\u201d is meant to turn to a \u201cwe.\u201d There is a corporate component to God\u2019s ministry of comfort to us and through us \u2014 the ministry of the body of Christ, the church. We\u2019re meant to bring the ministry of God\u2019s comfort into the lives of our brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a tall task and may seem daunting. We don\u2019t always know what to do or say or how to help those who are suffering, but thankfully we don\u2019t enter the lives and adversity of others empty-handed. Paul says we go equipped with \u201cthe comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God\u201d (v. 4).<\/p>\n
In other words, God may take us through something difficult, grow us through it or teach us something about Him through it, use it to develop our compassion and empathy muscles for others who are hurting, and then give us opportunities to come alongside others and comfort them with what we\u2019ve experienced or learned. We don\u2019t have to have magic words. We simply bring to them the truth or a reminder of the truth of God\u2019s presence and power \u2014 the same comfort we received from God.<\/p>\n
Where do we go for comfort?<\/h2>\n
Throughout 2 Corinthians 1, Paul testified that God\u2019s comfort in his own afflictions and his intentionality to enter into the lives of others with that very comfort solidified his hope in God. He proclaimed that his hope was firm and unshaken, and he invited the Corinthian church to both receive and give God\u2019s comfort so their hope would be solidified as well.<\/p>\n
When we enter into the suffering of others with the comfort of God, it emboldens our own hope and comfort in Him. We discover that the comfort of God is real and applicable in any and every situation, and we discover the joy of entering into the adversity of others with such deep and profound comfort.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s return, then, to our initial question: Where do we go for comfort?<\/em><\/p>\n God is the God of all comfort, and He comforts us with His presence and power, so we go to Him. We go to the Source. There is nothing wrong with Target or Sonic or coffee shops or lighthearted fun. But if we neglect turning to the Source of comfort when we\u2019re needy, we will be endlessly restless. So go sit with Him and tell Him what you\u2019re feeling and what you need.<\/p>\n God also comforts us in our afflictions through one another. With our ultimate trust and hope in God, we enter our faith community both as comforters and as recipients of comfort. We give what God has given us. <\/p>\n You\u2019re invited to walk this pathway to joy.<\/p>\n This article originally appeared in the June 2025 edition of <\/em>HomeLife Magazine<\/a>. <\/p>\n Christine Hoover is a pastor\u2019s wife and serves as the women\u2019s ministry associate at The Austin Stone Community Church\u2019s Northwest congregation in Austin, Texas. She hosts the Ministry Wives podcast and has authored six books, including her latest, You Are Not Forgotten. Christine is married to Kyle and has three boys. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In this 8-session, verse-by-verse study on 2\u202fCorinthians, Christine Hoover guides you through one of Paul\u2019s most personal letters to discover how God is the ultimate source of the strength and sufficiency you need. You\u2019ll find that God gives you strength to go on\u2014through troubles, disappointments, and temptations\u2014and strength to go forth, equipping you to serve Him and compelling you to share the gospel. Weakness is not a disqualifier or a flaw in our design. In fact, God shows Himself most powerfully in and through our fragility and vulnerability. We\u2019re called, then, not to work harder or to hide our weaknesses, but to call upon God\u2019s infinite resources and rely on Him. Read an excerpt!<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n One of my most vivid memories of craving comfort was when I had my first child. I remember thinking to myself, I may never sleep or shower again! How could something so cute and so small scream so loudly, eat so much, and explode so many diapers? And how could this adult woman suddenly, overnight, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":271682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97427,97428,97429,97426],"tags":[97430,27477,97431,498,4438,10275,8646,97432],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-271681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brokenhearted","category-christine-hoover","category-more-than-enough","category-spiritual-growth","tag-brokenhearted","tag-christine","tag-christine-hoover","tag-comfort","tag-finding","tag-god","tag-hoover","tag-more-than-enough"],"yoast_head":"\nABOUT CHRISTINE HOOVER<\/a><\/h4>\n
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