“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God” – 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.

TIMES OF TROUBLE are not just for our benefit; they are first and foremost for God’s honour, knowing Him and making Him known unto others. When God is real to us in the throes of adversity, we shall be real to others who are going through suffering and bewilderment. We can then – and only then “cry with those that cry.” Have we ever met those who do not necessarily speak a lot of words, but their presence and the way in which they look with eyes of compassion do far more than those who just blurt out Scripture? These are tried souls who bring salt and light into the lives of others. To touch other lives in such a way, in and of it itself, is worth all the years of our suffering beforehand.

Oswald Chambers, a man who spoke profoundly from personal experience said, “If we are going to be used by God, He will take us through a multitude of experiences that are not meant for us at all, but meant to make us useful in His hands. There are things we go through which are unexplainable on any other line and the nearer we get to God the more inexplicable the way seems. It is only on looking back and by getting an explanation from God’s Word that we understand His dealings with us.”

Our desire and prayer to know God will take us down paths we would avoid with all our might, but in time to come we will praise God for His wisdom in answering such prayers beyond what we expected. Are we willing to pay the price of being made spiritually rich to pour into the lives of others?