Right now, in the midst of tragedy, support and comfort is being poured out to the Virginia Tech community. I know my prayers are going out to all of those who are suffering. It is greatly needed. With that, I wanted to share this passage of Scripture.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5--"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows."
Many of those extending their support and prayers are able to do so more effectively because of their own history of tragedy and pain. What once has caused us pain, God can use to touch the life of someone else in their moment of need.
A blogging friend of mine is in a similar position today as a result of the VT tragedy. Read about it here.
One thing I appreciate about my faith in Christ is that my God also understands my suffering. The Author or Captain or Pioneer of my faith was made perfect through suffering according to Hebrews 2:10.
God knows what it feels like to be betrayed, to be hurt, to be killed, to lose a loved one, even to experience the pain of divorce. There is no pain we have that God cannot comfort--drawing from His own experience walking around on the earth--and also from often using you and me and our experiences.
I pray God, that You will truly make Yourself known to those who have survived this tragedy. Use it Lord, to draw people closer to You. I pray that it will change the heart of someone who is so isolated and in such pain as to consider such an action--that they will be comforted with a greater power than the desire to inflict such pain. I pray Lord, for the family of the shooter--that they have a community of faith around them to minister to them in this time of shock.
Lord, somehow, I don't know how--bring Glory to Your Name.
Pursuing Answers to Questions of Faith & Life,
Kelly
3 comments:
That passage has been a source of comfort for me ever since I had a man commit suicide on my car in 1987.
Thank you for posting this
It has stirred my heart to evangelize, when I went online reading more and more about this, I start googling about school shooting...
Its scarey, but the best hope we have is not gun control, or lack of it, etc, but Christ changing hearts like Cho...
I found this guy's testimony online that I thought you might be interested in...
http://www.teamtruth.com/testimony/test_letter.htm
I guess that link didn't work, click on my name it should work now
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