Consolation, Part 1

Today I was writing a report to our congregation regarding a couple of our members who are ill. As I did so, my thoughts were stirred regarding the subject of consolation. Let’s begin with noting the words of our beloved apostle Paul.

Philippians 2:1  If there be therefore any consolation in Christ….

Of course, there is no doubt that there is consolation in Christ. But the sad thing is that we are not always drawing on it. Therefore, Paul introduced his sentence with the hypothetical word if.

True to form, let’s define some terms. Consolation is the act of consoling. This definition requires that we define console.

Console - To comfort in mental distress or depression; to alleviate the sorrow of (any one); to free from the sense of misery.

To console is to comfort, to alleviate.

Comfort – To strengthen (morally or spiritually); to encourage, hearten, inspirit, incite. To lend support or countenance to; to support, assist, aid.

Alleviate – To make lighter, diminish the weight of. To lighten, or render more tolerable, or endurable; to relieve, mitigate.

By definition, it is the function of consolation to comfort, to impart strength. Consolation comforts by alleviating sorrow. It does not make the sorrow go away, but it lightens the sorrow and makes it more bearable. It provides relief. When sorrow is lightened, it reduces the drain on our energy and thus conserves our strength. One has more strength when less strength is being demanded.

We can see consolation at work in the following passage.

2 Corinthians 7:5  For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.
6  Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus;
7  And not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more.

Observe that Titus was comforted by consolation and that Paul was also “comforted by the consolation wherewith” Titus was comforted. Paul was troubled on every side. There were fightings without and fears within. His conflicts were to the point that his “flesh had no rest.” There was no letup. The pressure was constant. And then came Titus with good news about the Corinthians. In his first epistle to the Corinthians Paul had issued some stern rebukes to them. Paul was very concerned about how they had received his epistle. Now Titus came with the news that the Corinthians had received Paul’s rebuke very well. What a relief! This was one worry that was lifted off of Paul. This in turn made his remaining conflicts more bearable. You see, his sorrow was alleviated. He was strengthened by the lightening of the load. He had experienced consolation. Surely you have experienced the consolation that comes when you get a piece of good news amidst all the bad.

Now there is consolation in Christ to relieve us when we struggle beneath heavy burdens that drain our strength. This is evident in these familiar words of our Lord:

Matthew 11:28  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Observe the contrast between being “heavy laden” and having a burden that “is light.” It requires a lot less energy to bear a light burden than a heavy one. To have our burden lightened is to experience consolation by definition. This is the consolation that is in Christ! In this passage our Lord teaches us how we can draw on this consolation. It is by coming to him, taking His yoke upon us, and learning of Him. Now let’s examine each of these steps toward experiencing consolation.

First, we experience consolation by coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you find your burdens are becoming harder and harder to bear, just bring them to Jesus. As the old spiritual puts it: “Tell Him all about your troubles.” You will tap into God’s strength just by casting your burden upon Him

Psalms 55:22  Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee.

In case you don’t know this, sustain means to support. It really does help to pray. I can’t tell you the times that “a little talk with Jesus” has helped to put my troubles into perspective and to make them easier to bear. Our problem is that we try to sort it all out and solve it on our own without Him.

This is growing so I will stop here for today and continue this later, God willing. It is my sincere desire that you will find some consolation in reading this.