◄ Afflicted And Comforted ►

The Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort" (2 Cor. 1:3).

Affliction provides opportunity for us to learn more of our Father in His mercy, as well as providing a deeper understanding of what others may be called upon to go through.

"Many saints have been happy to assert that they would not have missed for anything the exercises of prolonged illness and suffering! They have thereby learned the grace and sympathy of the Lord Jesus, and they have been the subjects of so much tender interest and consideration flowing from the spiritual affections of His saints, that they have been conscious of infinite gain and enrichment.

"And surely the development and exercise of such affections as these, eternal in their nature, though called into activity by circumstances connected with conditions of weakness and trial, is a greater triumph of divine love and power than restoring the sick ones to health. It is a real loss for the attention of believers to be turned from the spiritual dealings of the Lord Jesus with His own, and from all that is the moral result of those dealings, to be concentrated upon the thought of bodily healing and self-centered experiences." -C.A.C.

"There is a great difference between going to the Lord Jesus in our troubles, as to the best Physician and Friend, and knowing Him as the One who loves me best, the Bridegroom. In the former we turn to Him when anything is the matter; but in the latter, if we are true to it, we could never leave Him." -J.B.S.

"Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble, by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God" (2 Cor. 1:4).