I remember the first time I read the verse. It was before sunrise back in the early eighties. My wife and our four children were still sleeping soundly and I was seated in my favorite chair alone with my thoughts and Bible. I was flipping through the Book of Isaiah when the verse seemed to leap off the page and imbed itself into my mind and heart. It has remained there ever since.

Although God was speaking to the Prophet Isaiah, I got the distinct impression that He was also addressing me personally. “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God” (Isaiah 40:1). I was and still am deeply moved by this verse. The idea of being used by the Lord to comfort His people appealed to me greatly. So much so, that I took it as a command. The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that this was something that He wanted me to do with my life. I went to Him in prayer and asked Him to please use me in this way. I prayed fervently for the next several days, pleading with Him to give me opportunities to comfort His people.

I soon forgot about the verse and my prayer. Something happened that catapulted my mind in another direction. I lost my job. They were hard to come by during that recession back in the early eighties, especially for a 50 year old man who had barely squeaked out of high school. Little did I know but I was about to experience what was to become an extremely emotional painful, humbling experience. I lost my car, health insurance and was on the verge of having a foreclosure on our home. I wondered if I would lose my family next.

Winter gave way to spring and summer turned into autumn. There was still no job or even the prospects of one. Thanksgiving came and went with Christmas on its heels. Finally, on Christmas Eve, by the grace of God, I started my new job. Eleven months earlier the Lord had taken away my job as a Director of Marketing for a Vermont association of businesses and made me the Executive Director of an emergency shelter for the homeless. God taught me a lot during that painful ordeal, including what He wants Christians to do for others who are suffering affliction. For instance, He wants us to pray for them.

1 About that time King Herod moved against some of the believers 2 and killed the apostle James (John’s brother). 3 When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish leaders, he arrested Peter during the Passover celebration 4 and imprisoned him, placing him under the guard of sixteen soldiers. Herod’s intention was to deliver Peter to the Jews for execution after the Passover. 5 But earnest prayer was going up to God from the church for his safety all the time he was in prison. Acts 12:1-5 (TLB)

19 I am going to keep on being glad, for I know that as you pray for me, and as the Holy Spirit helps me, this is all going to turn out for my good. Philippians 1:19 (TLB)

13 Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. 14 Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. 15 Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you’ve sinned, you’ll be forgiven—healed inside and out. 16 Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with. James 5:13-16 (MSG)

Jesus commands us to sympathize with them

15 When others are happy, be happy with them. If they are sad, share their sorrow. Romans 12:15 (TLB)

2 Share each other’s troubles and problems, and so obey our Lord’s command. Galatians 6:2 (TLB)

Every true Christian WILL show them kindness.

14 “When desperate people give up on God Almighty, their friends, at least, should stick with them. Job 6:14 (MSG)

How can a true Christian not be mindful of the afflicted?

3 Don’t forget about those in jail. Suffer with them as though you were there yourself. Share the sorrow of those being mistreated, for you know what they are going through. Hebrews 13:3 (TLB)

Every true Christian WILL reach out to them.

26 Anyone who sets himself up as “religious” by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. 27 Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world. James 1:26-27 (MSG)

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 2 Corinthians 1:1-4 (NIV)

Those verses reminded me of my prayer asking God to use me to comfort His people. He comforted me throughout my unemployment ordeal. He saw that all my true needs were met and that I lacked nothing. He never allowed me to suffer more that I could bear. That’s when I realized I had been in God’s School of Affliction. He was training me to become a comforter. Consider the following Bible passages.

15 I can tell you this directly from the Lord: that we who are still living when the Lord returns will not rise to meet him ahead of those who are in their graves. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a mighty shout and with the soul-stirring cry of the archangel and the great trumpet-call of God. And the believers who are dead will be the first to rise to meet the Lord. 17 Then we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and remain with him forever. 18 So comfort and encourage each other with this news. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 (TLB)

God wants us to help the poor just as a godly man named Job did. And look at what he received in return.

20 Didn’t the poor bless me when they saw me coming, knowing I’d brought coats from my closet? 21 “If I’ve ever used my strength and influence to take advantage of the unfortunate, Job 31:20-21 (MSG)

Consider these promises God makes to us:

10 If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. Isaiah 58:10 (MSG)

14 I don’t mean that your help didn’t mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles. Philippians 4:14 (MSG)

God command’s every pastor to:

¹ Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. ² Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins. Isaiah 40:1-2 (KJV)

¹ Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it—because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth. ² If you praise him in the private language of tongues, God understands you but no one else does, for you are sharing intimacies just between you and him. ³ But when you proclaim his truth in everyday speech, you’re letting others in on the truth so that they can grow and be strong and experience his presence with you. 1 Corinthians 14:1-3 (MSG)

⁶ When we suffer for Jesus, it works out for your healing and salvation. If we are treated well, given a helping hand and encouraging word, that also works to your benefit, spurring you on, face forward, unflinching. Your hard times are also our hard times. 2 Corinthians 1:6 (MSG)

Afflicted Christian’s will be consoled by the fact that God is the author and giver of all their afflictions.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Psalm 23:4 (KJV)

1 Having such great promises as these, dear friends, let us turn away from everything wrong, whether of body or spirit, and purify ourselves, living in the wholesome fear of God, giving ourselves to him alone. 2 Please open your hearts to us again, for not one of you has suffered any wrong from us. Not one of you was led astray. We have cheated no one nor taken advantage of anyone. 3 I’m not saying this to scold or blame you, for, as I have said before, you are in my heart forever, and I live and die with you. 4 I have the highest confidence in you, and my pride in you is great. You have greatly encouraged me; you have made me so happy in spite of all my suffering. 5 When we arrived in Macedonia there was no rest for us; outside, trouble was on every hand and all around us; within us, our hearts were full of dread and fear. 6 Then God who cheers those who are discouraged refreshed us by the arrival of Titus. 2 Corinthians 7:1-6 (TLB)

¹⁶ But those [unbelievers] on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse. This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? ¹⁷ No—but at least we don’t take God’s Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ’s presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can. 2 Corinthians 2:16-17 (MSG)

¹ With promises like this to pull us on, dear friends, let’s make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without. Let’s make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God. ² Trust us. We’ve never hurt a soul, never exploited or taken advantage of anyone. ³ Don’t think I’m finding fault with you. I told you earlier that I’m with you all the way, no matter what. ⁴ I have, in fact, the greatest confidence in you. If only you knew how proud I am of you! I am overwhelmed with joy despite all our troubles. ⁵ When we arrived in Macedonia province, we couldn’t settle down. The fights in the church and the fears in our hearts kept us on pins and needles. We couldn’t relax because we didn’t know how it would turn out. ⁶ Then the God who lifts up the downcast lifted our heads and our hearts with the arrival of Titus. 2 Corinthians 7:1-6 (MSG)

¹ Now, friends, I want to report on the surprising and generous ways in which God is working in the churches in Macedonia province. ² Fierce troubles came down on the people of those churches, pushing them to the very limit. The trial exposed their true colors: They were incredibly happy, though desperately poor. The pressure triggered something totally unexpected: an outpouring of pure and generous gifts. ³ I was there and saw it for myself. They gave offerings of whatever they could—far more than they could afford!— ⁴ pleading for the privilege of helping out in the relief of poor Christians. ⁵ This was totally spontaneous, entirely their own idea, and caught us completely off guard. What explains it was that they had first given themselves unreservedly to God and to us. The other giving simply flowed out of the purposes of God working in their lives. ⁶ That’s what prompted us to ask Titus to bring the relief offering to your attention, so that what was so well begun could be finished up. 2 Corinthians 8:1-6 (MSG)

Before I end this message I would like you folks to take a moment and glance at your brothers and sisters in Christ. Now allow me to ask you folks this question: is our church a PASTURE FOR WAYWARD SHEEP? Of course it is!The fact of the matter is that we Christians are all wayward sheep saved by the grace of God. But we are not lost forever because,

¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (KJV)