The God of All Comfort

2Corinthians 1: 2,3,4
This passage starts out with "Grace be to you and peace from God our Father" and also "from the Lord Jesus Christ". This really caught my attention because I had to stop and think about what it really means to receive grace from a father.
I can't help but believe that most people going to church every week do not really take the time to look at the real meaning of grace. The reason I say that is because of the way they treat each other. I rarely see people smiling at church except for when they shake hands OR when they are singing praise and that's a whole other devotional. We need to realize that the grace of our father is knowing what we have done but helping and caring for us regardless of that.
I remember in the last counseling session that my ex and I went to that the counselor told us that we needed to show grace to each other and my ex asked what that meant. The counselor looked at her kind of surprised because we had both spent our entire lives in church as preachers kids. I have to admit, I was a little lost when it came to the idea of giving someone else grace. He then explained how God is our example and His grace to us that allows us to live and continue learning while His Son Jesus in grace (also!) interceeds for us with His Father. He then explained that it would mean praying for me and accepting whatever problems she saw in me for that time while trusting God to work in my life and not insist that I change. Well, that didn't go over to well with her at all but I did learn something new that day about grace.
We read in verse 3, "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," and get this very important part that sequels with verse 2, "the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;" How much comfort was that? I believe it clearly says "all comfort". That would mean that anytime we are dealing with some difficulty in our life the comfort is available from God! Anytime! Anywhere! Don't let Satan fool you into thinking you're doing it all alone or you need someone else to make it through this time or that life is not worth living because no one else even cares or understands! Write this down on your mirror or hang it on the refrigerator! This next verse is one that changed my life two years after my wife left when I felt I couldn't find help from anyone and I was all alone dealing with the pain of loss and rejection. I cried out to God to help me that morning and when I opened my Bible God placed this verse right before my eyes! If we call out to God, He is all our comfort and always will be there for us!
The verse I read that morning is verse 4 ,
"Who comforteth US in ALL our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, BY the comfort wherewith WE ourselves are comforted of GOD."
There is enough comfort in that verse to cover every situation that the world could bring our way! When I read this verse I realized that God wanted to comfort me directly through His word and prayer. God wanted me to get close to Him in communion and build our relationship. It's pretty hard to build a serious relationship with someone you only see once every week or two. God wanted to comfort me daily and build my strength up through His word. It wasn't long after that, maybe a few months, that the second part of the verse started manifesting itself in my life. I met a lady and her two children on a path at Umstead State Park and she shared that she had went through a bad divorce. It was then that I was able to comfort her by the things that God had used to comfort me and thank God she is doing very well today. Guess what? It has continued to happen everywhere I have gone since then. Not everyday but as the Lord led me and planned to use what He had done for me.
We must look to God the Father and also our Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiving and caring example of grace(vs.2); His loving example of mercy and the most extraordinary example of comfort that nurtures our healing in all tribulations! (vs.3, 4)