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  TRAINED TO COMFORT
  by Charles E. Cowman
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Summary: The sermon teaches that our personal sufferings are essential
for equipping us to comfort others in their times of need.

Topics: "Comforting Others", "Spiritual Growth"
Scripture References: Isaiah 40:1, Romans 12:15, 2 Corinthians 1:3, Galatians 6:2, 1 Thessalonians 5:11

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DESCRIPTION
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Charles E. Cowman preaches on the importance of comforting others as a
response to God's comfort. He emphasizes that our own experiences of
affliction and comfort are meant to equip us to bring comfort to those
around us. Through our trials and wounds, God trains us to be
compassionate and empathetic towards others who are suffering, allowing
us to share our stories of comfort and hope with them.

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CONTENT
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"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God" (Isa. 40:1).

Store up comfort. This was the prophet's mission. The world is full of
comfortless hearts, and ere thou art sufficient for this lofty ministry,
thou must be trained. And thy training is costly in the extreme; for, to
render it perfect, thou too must pass through the same afflictions as
are wringing countless hearts of tears and blood. Thus thy own life
becomes the hospital ward where thou art taught the Divine art of
comfort. Thou art wounded, that in the binding up of thy wounds by the
Great Physician, thou mayest learn how to render first aid to the
wounded everywhere. Dost thou wonder why thou art passing through some
special sorrow? Wait till ten years are passed, and thou wilt find many
others afflicted as thou art. Thou wilt tell them how thou hast suffered
and hast been comforted; then as the tale is unfolded, and the anodynes
applied which once thy God wrapped around thee, in the eager look and
the gleam of hope that shall chase the shadow of despair across the
soul, thou shalt know why thou wast afflicted, and bless God for the
discipline that stored thy life with such a fund of experience and
helpfulness. --Selected

God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us
comforters. --Dr. Jowett

"They tell me I must bruise

The rose's leaf,

Ere I can keep and use

Its fragrance brief.

"They tell me I must break

The skylark's heart,

Ere her cage song will make

The silence start.

"They tell me love must bleed,

And friendship weep,

Ere in my deepest need

I touch that deep.

"Must it be always so

With precious things?

Must they be bruised and go

With beaten wings?

"Ah, yes! by crushing days,

By caging nights, by scar

Of thorn and stony ways,

These blessings are!"

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/charles-e-cowman/trained-to-comfort/
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