Gospel-Centered Suffering: God Helps Those Who Admit They Can’t Help Themselves 

Note from Bob: You’re reading Part Four of a Changing Lives blog mini-series on Gospel-Centered Self-Counsel for Suffering. Read Part One. Read Part Two. Read Part Three.  

Powerful People-Helpers Admit Their Own Powerlessness 

The world says, “God helps those who help themselves.” 

But based upon the biblical definition of comfort in 2 Corinthians 1:3-11, Paul says, “God helps those who admit they can’t help themselves.” 

More than that, Paul says, “Powerful people-helpers admit their own powerlessness.” That’s exactly what 2 Corinthians 1:4 teaches. “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.” 

When we are weak—admitting our powerlessness to God, crying out for His comfort—then we are strong—empowered to empower others. God comforts and empowers us in our weakness so that we can comfort and empower others in their weakness. 

We miss that message sometimes because we skip the little word “can” in verse four. It means to have the ability to, the capacity, capability to, to be empowered or strengthened, to be able to. 

We falsely think that the prerequisite for helping others is always being strong, never needing help. But that’s another lie of Satan. It’s not the person who always has it together who is helpful—that person’s not being candid any way. 

It’s the person who is consistently and humbly taking their struggles to God who is helpful to others. It’s the person with uplifted arms and pleading eyes. If that’s you and if that’s me, then God can use us to lift others up in their suffering. 

There’s another important one-another principle tucked away in this verse. We tend to think, “For me to help another person, I have to have gone through the same situation or the identical trial.” For instance, we think, “For me to help someone struggling with alcoholism, I have to have battled alcoholism in my life.”

Powerful People-Helpers Face Their Own Suffering Face-to-Face with Christ 

That’s not at all what this verse teaches. Notice it again. “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.” 

Whatever my trouble is, if I’ve taken that trouble to Christ, then His infinite comfort in my life supplies me with the power to comfort you with any trouble in your life. My ability to help you is not based upon what I’ve gone through, it’s based upon my going through suffering face-to-face with Christ. 

Then I become Jesus with skin on. Then I offer small tastes of what it is like to be comforted by Christ. Of course, as I do this, I don’t point people to myself, I point them to Christ who is the Ultimate Comforter. 

Powerful People-Helpers Understand That Shared Sorrow Is Endurable Sorrow 

Paul teaches us yet another one-another ministry principle in verse 5. “For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.” Powerful people-helpers understand that shared sorrow is endurable sorrow. 

What does Paul mean when he speaks of Christ’s suffering flowing into our lives? The word suffering itself means external misfortune, sickness, persecution, and mistreatment along with internal pain and sorrow. It is often used, especially with Christ, for suffering on behalf of another—sharing the same suffering, having the same feelings, suffering with, and mutual participation through a full acquaintance and joining into another person’s suffering. 

Christ Himself speaks of His experiencing the sufferings of others in Matthew 25:42-45. 

I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me. They answered, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?” He replies, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” 

This is incarnational suffering. It is suffering that willingly takes on another person’s abuse and agony. 

If you’re a Christian, you’ve asked Jesus to take on your sin. Have you ever asked Jesus to take on your suffering? On the basis of 2 Corinthians 1:5, Matthew 25:42-52, and Hebrews 4:15-16, Jesus invites us to offer Him our suffering. What amazing grace. What incredible love. 

When your suffering overwhelms you, when it brings you to the brink of despair—take it to the foot of the Cross. Give it to Jesus. Say to Jesus, “Deliver me from my suffering.” Humbly ask the infinite God of the universe to take on your agony. 

The Rest of the Story 

Join us for Part Five when we ponder Incarnational Suffering. 

Join the Conversation 

Have you ever asked Jesus to take on your suffering? 

RPM Ministries: Equipping You to Change Lives with Christ’s Changeless Truth