Saturday, October 29, 2016

"...the God of All Comfort..." (2 Corinthians 1:3)

Christ is the light of the world.
I choose to focus on the light
I realize that there is so much suffering, hurt, sorrow, misery, injustice, and pain in the world from which I am sheltered. I cannot imagine what some people must endure from their own choices, other people's choices, and just part of living in a physical world. It's too easy to get sucked into the "dark" if I focus on all the bad things that happen every day in the world. Therefore I choose to focus on the "light", even the Light of Christ. It is defined as: "Divine energy, power, or influence that proceeds from God through Christ and gives life and light to all things" (Light). I love that light is divine energy and power. I can feel this power as I make good choices and focus on the love that God has for all of His children.
  
I also choose to focus on hope. There is always hope! Hope is defined as: "The confident expectation of and longing for the promised blessings of righteousness" (Hope). This hope- even a "perfect brightness of hope" (2 Nephi 31:20) which brings peace, joy, and relief, can only come from One True Source, even Jesus Christ. He is "the God of peace" (Romans 15:33).

I can imagine a "God of peace" (Romans 16:20). Even the "Prince of Peace"(Isaiah 9:6). I can imagine and feel hope because- He lives (D&C 76:22)!

God offers us peace and comfort. And not just the absence of war or contention. But true peace that calms the "troubled heart" (see John 14:1).
"Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
A Heavenly Father is there to comfort us. A Savior. Our Savior is there to comfort us in our darkest hours. In our painful hours. In the hours of joy and sorrow, He is there to comfort us and to rejoice with us.

I have found that where there is pain there is also joy, because we cannot have one without the other, neither light without darkness (see 2 Nephi 2:11). As I endure physical pain, I am appreciative of this statement by Orson F. Whitney:
No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience, is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire and which will make us more like our Father" (Joy in the Journey)
The truth is, Jesus Christ is the source of hope and "the God of all comfort" (2 Corinthians 1:3). Even in our darkest hours, which indeed we may come to find that they are our finest hours, will be filled with light (see The Great Plan of the Eternal God). He is the divine light that fills our hearts with joy, even in the midst of suffering. This I testify.

I love to see the light He offers me. In it I find comfort and joy.

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