Layers of Comfort

(Mat 5:4 KJV)  Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

(Proverbs 17 also read)

On Wednesday night the pastor is doing a study in Matthew.  He came to the Sermon on the Mount and was working through the Beatitudes.  On this verse he made some generic statement about how God will “comfort” (3870) [parakalew] us when we go through a loss.  Okay, but that word comfort stirred a number of thoughts in me.  

First I wondered if that was the same word used for “Comforter” (KJV) or “Helper” (NASB) as a name for the Holy Spirit in John.  One of the middle agers had an app on his phone and said, “Yes.”  I was glad to see my suspicions were correct and sad that the connection never occurred to the pastor.  

Second, I remembered a passage I had once memorized but now was escaping me.  It turns out it is the same word,

(2Co 1:3 KJV)  Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
(2Co 1:4 KJV)  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.

The idea is expanded further.

So?  When we have reason to mourn we need to be aware of the promise of the Holy Spirit.  In addition, I think we as believers are called to comfort and support each other in a crisis or loss.  It is how the Body of Christ is to work.  Trust the Comforter.  Be a comforter.