Thursday, February 6, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: 2 Corinthians 1
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 16
Key Verse
2 Corinthians 1:13 — “For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end;”
Devotional Thought
Paul writes his second letter to the Corinthians as a man who has been brought low. In the opening chapter he speaks plainly of a trouble that came upon him in Asia, a burden so crushing that he “despaired even of life” and felt within himself “the sentence of death.” This is no rhetorical flourish. The apostle who planted the church at Corinth, who traveled with Timothy and Silvanus, who reasoned daily in the marketplace and synagogues, here admits he was pressed “out of measure, above strength.” Yet he does not leave the story in the ash heap. He names God as “the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort,” the One who raises the dead and who delivered, does deliver, and will yet deliver. And he tells the Corinthians why comfort is given at all: not merely for our own relief, but so 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 a deep tenderness in that logic. Comfort is not a private possession; it is a stewardship. The consolation we receive in our darkest seasons becomes the very thing we carry to others walking the same road. Paul even sees his afflictions as bound up with the Corinthians’ consolation and salvation, and their prayers as a help to him, so that “thanks may be given by many.” Suffering and comfort circulate through the body of Christ like blood through limbs.
The chapter then turns to the trustworthiness of God’s promises. Paul had planned to visit Corinth, then changed his plans, and some had accused him of fickleness. He answers with the gospel itself: “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen.” The God who comforts in tribulation is also the God who does not waver. He has “sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”—a down payment, a guarantee of what is to come.
We read this in early February, deep in winter, when the year still feels dark and the holidays are a fading memory. Many of us know something of being “pressed out of measure.” Psalm 16 sings alongside Paul here: “I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” The lines have fallen in pleasant places, not because circumstances are easy, but because the Lord Himself is our portion and our cup. Whatever presses on you today, the Father of mercies has not looked away. And the comfort He gives you now is not only for you—it is provision for the next weary traveler He will send across your path.
Reflection
- When you have been “pressed out of measure,” how have you experienced God’s comfort—and have you passed that comfort on to someone else in trouble?
- Where in your life are you tempted to trust in yourself rather than in “God which raiseth the dead,” and what would it look like to set the Lord always before you this week?
Prayer
Father of mercies and God of all comfort, we come to You as people who have known trouble and who will know it again. You delivered Paul from so great a death, and You raise the dead; we put our trust in You. When we are pressed beyond our strength, teach us not to lean on ourselves but on You. Comfort us in our tribulation, and make us faithful stewards of that comfort, ready to strengthen others in their trouble. Establish us in Christ, in whom every promise is yea and Amen, and keep us steadfast, for by faith we stand. In His name we pray. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 16:1 — “Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.”