Life is filled with all sorts of seasons and needs and opportunities. It’s one of the beautifully terrifying realities to our existence. No matter how long we have been here, there’s always the possibility of facing something we haven’t come across just yet. The terrifying piece is that it’s foreign, the beautiful thing to the believer is that the new things function as primer for a fresh coat of God’s provisional paint.

This past week there have been some challenging circumstances for those in my circle. There’s been pain, confusion, and loss. Hard times have a tendency to cause chaos in our psyche as we attempt to explain and medicate in an attempt to figure out what’s going on. It’s here that I want to spend a moment to offer some Biblical guidance.

Paul, when talking about the extent of God’s love, says that he wishes we would understand just how big God’s love really us, though it’s too great to understand fully (Ephesians 3). What’s amazing about this truth is that we have the opportunity, however mature or novel we find ourselves in our walk with the Lord, to learn even more about His character and nature – about who He is.

Jesus at the beginning of His famous Sermon on the Mount says this, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:4). In John, Jesus says, “The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things” (John 14:26).

When we find ourselves in places of mourning, there is something unique that we are positioned for. The Holy Spirit is described as the Comforter. And again, Jesus even goes on to say that somehow there is even blessing for those who find themselves in a state of mourning. Here’s the rub, it’s in these places that we have a unique opportunity to experience a side of God’s character that we don’t get to experience in any other place in our life. It's he or she that is in need of comfort that gets to see the side of God’s face as Comforter.

It's like when you’re freezing cold, to the point where it starts to hurt, and you finally get inside a warm room and begin to dethaw and you find yourself breathing a little slower and your heartbeat falling back to par. It’s the need for warmth and the receiving of that warmth that helps bring you through the sting of the cold and back towards a calmer sense of equilibrium. This is how God walks us through the sharpness of heartbreak and loss.

It's also said by Paul this way, “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).

God’s love has a domino-ing effect. He is able to use other people to show His love for the individual. It’s one of the reasons He calls us to live communally – in fellowship with one another. Here is where relationship and togetherness blossoms into the fullness it can become. It’s when we, individually, experience a side of God’s character for ourselves, such as His comfort, and we then embody that comfort for those around us when they are in need of comforting.

Do you find yourself in a challenging season, going through loss, with a heart that’s breaking? Oh, friend, take heart, you are primed to experience a brand new side of God and just how much He is here for you. Maybe you’ve walked through a time of challenge and are well-acquainted with the warm blanket of God’s comfort, there will come a time when you will have the opportunity to walk through loss with someone else and share that blanket. Whether you find yourself in need of comfort or in a position to offer comfort, let’s be fervent to run to the open-armed embrace of God’s love, knowing that loss and hardship opens the door for the Lord to reveal a new thing.