When we get hungry, we go to a restaurant or grocery store. When we want to buy a car, we go to a car dealership. When we want medication, we go to a pharmacy.

When we need comfort, God is the place to go.

We are not strangers to Him; He knows us and our needs before we even come to Him.

Out of His goodness, God has provided a refuge — Himself — where we can find peace and take a rest from the world’s chaos.

Where do you go when you need comfort?

Suppose you get into big-time trouble and you need help.

More than likely you will quickly seek legal help, someone to come alongside you and plead your case, an advocate.

That kind of person is a great comfort to you.

We hope beyond hope that our advocate is also a person of compassion, and while he or she is there to plead our case, that person will also bring a personal comfort and compassion to us.

Friends and family are comforters. But God is our ultimate comforter, through Christ and through the Holy Spirit.

Comfort is relief from burdens, encouragement for a new day, exhortation to rise above the burdens that afflict us and hope that the pain and suffering will ultimately end.

Just being there with us is perhaps the greatest source of comfort, whether at the funeral home, when we’re wrestling with a problem alone or when others stand against us.

Oppressors stand above us, adversaries stand against us, but comforters stand beside us.

How can we comfort others?

II CORINTHIANS 1:3-4, “All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us … When others are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”

The comforted becomes the comforter. That is the role God has for us. As He comforts us in our time of trouble, so we comfort others.

If you have any questions or comments, please write Harold Keller at Get High on Life, P.O. Drawer U, Reserve, LA 70084, call 985-652-8477 or email hkeller@comcast.net.