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Trained to comfort....why I was afflicted


Debp

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Title: Trained to Comfort

Author: Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Source: Streams in the Desert
Scripture Reference: Isaiah 40:1-1

"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God" (Isa. 40:1).

Store up comfort. This was the prophet's mission. The world is full of comfortless hearts, and ere thou art sufficient for this lofty ministry, thou must be trained. And thy training is costly in the extreme; for, to render it perfect, thou too must pass through the same afflictions as are wringing countless hearts of tears and blood. Thus thy own life becomes the hospital ward where thou art taught the Divine art of comfort. Thou art wounded, that in the binding up of thy wounds by the Great Physician, thou mayest learn how to render first aid to the wounded everywhere. Dost thou wonder why thou art passing through some special sorrow? Wait till ten years are passed, and thou wilt find many others afflicted as thou art. Thou wilt tell them how thou hast suffered and hast been comforted; then as the tale is unfolded, and the anodynes applied which once thy God wrapped around thee, in the eager look and the gleam of hope that shall chase the shadow of despair across the soul, thou shalt know why thou wast afflicted, and bless God for the discipline that stored thy life with such a fund of experience and helpfulness. --Selected

God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters. --Dr. Jowett

"They tell me I must bruise
The rose's leaf,
Ere I can keep and use
Its fragrance brief.

"They tell me I must break
The skylark's heart,
Ere her cage song will make
The silence start.

"They tell me love must bleed,
And friendship weep,
Ere in my deepest need
I touch that deep.

"Must it be always so
With precious things?
Must they be bruised and go
With beaten wings?

"Ah, yes! by crushing days,
By caging nights, by scar
Of thorn and stony ways,
These blessings are!"

This classic devotional is the unabridged edition of Streams in the Desert. This first edition was published in 1925 and the wording is preserved as originally written. Connotations of words may have changed over the years and are not meant to be offensive.

_________________________

This devotional is freely distributed by Back To The Bible.

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@Debp - thanks for posting.

I like it and I don't like it.

I like it because I think it is true. It brings a level of meaning to suffering.  It is relfected in 2 Cor 1 : 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.  

I don't like because I think it is true.  According to the quote from whoever that was, one has to go through ten years of suffering. 

God have mercy.

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5 hours ago, lftc said:

According to the quote from whoever that was, one has to go through ten years of suffering. 

I think the author was just saying that later on in our lives, we will meet others that are suffering....and then we will be more able to minister to a suffering person because we have experienced that.   He didn't mean everyone has to experience ten years of suffering.

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12 hours ago, Sonshine☀️ said:

Amen, Deb. 

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 New King James Version (NKJV)

Comfort in Suffering

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any [a]trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

@Debp

 

Sorry to have brought a dark cloud to your topic.

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15 minutes ago, lftc said:

@Debp

 

Sorry to have brought a dark cloud to your topic.

Oh no, you didn't.   You were just expressing your thoughts.   That's fine.

Walking_on_Water003.jpg.deb1a0ccd4c1b02a71fa7954a8da4a08.jpg

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On 10/8/2019 at 1:43 AM, Debp said:

Title: Trained to Comfort

Author: Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Source: Streams in the Desert
Scripture Reference: Isaiah 40:1-1

"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God" (Isa. 40:1).

I love this! My mom used to have this book among things she enjoyed reading in well, her bathroom. She had a small library of others that were handy for devotionals and the like. Thanks for sharing it. 

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