READ: 2 Corinthians 1:4 NLT
'He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.'
When God blesses our lives, he doesn’t want us to hug the blessings to ourselves. In this verse Paul makes it plain that God encourages us so that we are then stronger and can go out and encourage other people. God calls us to get involved in an eternal chain reaction. It works like this – God encourages us when we go through difficult times so that we can encourage others and then they, in turn, are made stronger and can go out and encourage yet other people – and so on, and so on. Isn’t that exciting?
The experiences of your life are unique. No one has experienced life in exactly the way that you have. Your life is a bundle of joys and sorrows, successes and failures and through it all God has been with you and has given you his encouragement. As a result of this you have a story to tell and you can use it to put courage and strength into other people. Whatever difficulty or loss you have experienced God can use it to bless other people.
When we face pain, illness, loss and failure it is easy to feel deflated and disappointed. But the truth is that nothing is lost when we place it in God’s hands. Miraculously, he is able to take hold of our difficult circumstances and use them to his glory. I love seeing this in action. I am thinking of a friend whose daughter has profound disabilities. Life is not easy, but my friend has allowed the Lord to use her to bring encouragement to many parents in similar circumstances. I am also thinking of friends who have experienced bereavement in the most tragic circumstances who have used their experience as a way of getting alongside others who have had to walk this same difficult road.
Whatever you have experienced in life, thank God that he is able to use you to pass on encouragement to others.
QUESTION: Where do you think God might use you to encourage others today?
PRAYER: Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for the encouragement that you have poured into my life. Please help me to share that encouragement more generously with others. Amen.

Released on 9 Dec 2020