Grace and Comfort

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8,9

If you have been in and around church for any length of time, you will have heard this verse preached on. I love the very thought of the grace of God that cared for me, and saved me, for no reason other than He loved me. It wasn’t up to me to be ‘good enough’, or to do and say the right churchy things. And all because God didn’t want any pompous human boasting.

We accept God’s grace so readily, and maybe because we didn’t have to do anything to get it. But are we as good at showing some of that same grace to others? I’m not sure we are. There are some interesting verses in 2nd Corinthians which show us the way we should act to others in sharing some of God’s same provision of love, grace, and comfort. At its root, we are told that the reason God comforts us (gives us grace) is to let us use that same comfort and pass it on to others. After all, if God is good enough to include us in His grace, should we not be as free in our giving of the same grace (comfort) He has given us?

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 2 Corinthians 1:3,4