Give God Your Hurts and God Will Give You His Healing

One thing made very plain in scripture is that God is a healer. He doesn’t always heal us the way we’d like or in the timing we’d prefer, but all true healing ultimately has its source in God’s very good nature. We can lean into God for comfort in all of our circumstances, and we can be a source of comfort to others, giving them what we’ve received.

Accident Reports on Insurance Claims (source)…

1. Leaving home for work I drove out of my drive and straight into a bus; the bus was five minutes early.
2. I was driving my car out of the driveway in the usual manner, when it was struck by the other car in the same place it had been struck several times before.
3. I had been learning to drive with power steering. I turned the wheel to what I thought was enough and found myself in a different direction going the opposite way.
4. One wheel went into the ditch. My foot jumped from the accelerator pedal, leapt across the lane to the other side and jammed in the trunk of a tree.
5. I was on my way to the doctor with rear end trouble when my universal joint gave way causing me to have an accident.
6. I was knocked out as a result of the collision and was taken to hospital where I sustained serious injuries.
7. Coming home, I drove into the wrong house and struck a tree I haven’t got.
8. The accident was caused by me waving to the man I hit last week.
9. I had been driving for forty years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.
10. I pulled into a lay-by with smoke coming from under the hood. I realized the car was on fire so took my dog and smothered it with a blanket.
11. I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law, and headed over the embankment.
12. A truck backed through my windshield onto my wife’s face.

But seriously… you’ve probably had some really bad days in your life. You may have had one this week. The Apostle Paul had some pretty bad days…

2 Corinthians 11:23-27 NLT

23 I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. 24 Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. 26 I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. 27 I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.

How did Paul get through that kind of stuff?

He wrote about it at the beginning of his second letter to the Corinthians and that’s the passage we’re looking at today as we hear two big challenges…

When you give your problems to God, he will give you his comfort.

Paul speaks of God with a sort of title or nickname: he’s the “God of all comfort.”

And Paul says God comforts us in all of our troubles. “Troubles” is a general word for affliction, annoyance, and inconvenience.

None of the problems you face are too small for God to care about.

And none of them are too big for him to handle.

He has all comfort, for all troubles.

When God gives you his comfort, you can give comfort to others.

When you walk through troubles and trust them to God, receiving his comfort, it’s like going to school and learning how to be a comfort to others.

If you want to know what comforting someone looks like, look at the life and ministry of Jesus.

What’s troubling you? Write it down. Write it all down and pray through it, inviting God’s powerful presence, comforting touch, and healing ministry into each situation.

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