Some things about Jesus can only be shared by those who have lived them. And (spoiler) it’s usually a valley you wish you didn’t have to walk down.
Perhaps that’s you: You have learned and experienced something in your journey that you will teach to the rest of us, some place where you’re able to say, “Oh, I know you can trust God there! I’ve been through that valley, and I know God is faithful there.”
Here’s how the Apostle Paul put it: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Corinthians 1:3–4 ESV). Through his pain, God gave him the ability to comfort others in similar pain—because his suffering and affliction revealed certain things about God that he couldn’t learn any other way.
It’s like the church is a diamond. None of us experiences all the dimensions of Jesus’ faithfulness, yet with Jesus as the ray of light, each person in the church reflects his faithfulness in their own unique way, so that the whole thing, shining together, is an object of dazzling beauty.
Or think of a symphony, where no one instrument conveys the fullness of the sound—it only happens when all the instruments blend together. Maybe you’re just the metaphorical cowbell of the church, and you sound weird and one-sided out there clanking on your own, but man, when you come together with all the other saints in God’s church, it sounds so good. (“I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!”)
Where have you experienced Jesus’ faithfulness in a way that you have a story to tell? Wouldn’t it change things if you knew that God could use your pain to comfort someone else?
Paul continues on to say, “If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort” (2 Corinthians 1:6). For whom has God written your story, and are you in a place to share it?
Our G4 ministries at Summit are literally built around these verses. G4 is where people come who have walked through some fire—anxiety, depression, infertility, betrayal, bereavement—and found that Jesus really meets you in that spot. Then they “come alongside” others in similar situations, offering comfort as they have been comforted.
One G4 leader shared with me a story of how God had used her pain in the lives of others:
I went through four excruciating years of what I like to call the “furnace of infertility.” And I confess: I did not suffer well. I isolated myself, became bitter, and constantly screamed, “Why me, God!?” I idolized having a baby, and my entire world revolved around it. Four years later, the Holy Spirit kept tugging at my heart to use my story to help other women. Through G4, I’m now able to use my experience to love, support, and comfort the women in my group in a personal, firsthand way. Most importantly, I’ve been able to help point the way through this furnace of suffering. You see, if we know that Jesus threw himself into the ultimate furnace of God’s wrath for us, we know he’s with us in the smaller, much cooler furnace of infertility, and he’s using it to refine us like gold! Praise God that my misery has become my ministry. And I couldn’t be more thankful for it.
That’s the kind of story you can have from the fiery furnaces you walk through. That’s a part of Jesus you will put on display. You’ve got a story to tell.
There are parents with wayward children who can minister to other parents in the same situation. When you’re broken, you don’t want to hear from someone distant from your pain. Faithful parent, God wrote that into your story, in part, so you could testify to others.
Those who are suffering under despairing health diagnoses need the testimony of those who have walked through similar ones too—from those who can testify that God is able and willing to heal and from others who can testify that his presence and plan is better than healing.
Maybe you’ve been through a divorce, been abandoned by a spouse, struggled with an eating disorder, lost a child to suicide or drugs, or made the tragic mistake of abortion. Listen: You have a message for those who are walking that same bitter path, and you can show them where they can find mercy and healing. You can say, “I’ve been down that road! I sought the Lord, and he heard, and he answered … That’s why I trust him, and you can too!”
Is there someone you feel this way about? Paul felt that way about the Corinthians. He sensed, my suffering is for these people. Who is it for you? Who is the Holy Spirit putting on your heart?
