Favorite Bible Excerpt

Here is one of my favorite bible excerpts that comes from St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians 1:3-7.

" Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement, who encourages us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to encourage others who are in any affliction with the encouragement with which we oursleves are encouraged by God. For as Christ's sufferings overflow to us, so through Christ does our encouragement also overflow. If we are afflicted , it is for your encouragement and salvation; if we are encouraged, it is for encouragement, which enables you to endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is firm, for we know that as you share in the sufferings, you also share in the encouragement."

I love this reading because it constantly talks about encouragement. First it states that throughout our own trails and sufferings, God is always encouraging us to trust in Him through them. God encourages us to push through them with our belief in Him that everything will be all right and that He is always with us us through them all.
Secondly, it states that not only is God encouraging us to believe in Him and that His is watching over us, but that using the encouragement that He gives us, God also gives us the confidence to encourage others in their trials to trust in Him that everything will be all right.

This reading truly teaches us how we should deal with our own problems in Life and how to help others deal with them. God wants us to first trust in Him to help ourselves learn that He is taking care of us, and then use our experience in these trials and how we overcame them in order to teach others how to overcome them! St. Paul's statement also reminds me of Jesus' teaching of how to help others. Jesus told His followers, "How can you help someone else take a sliver out of someone else's eye when you yourself have a be plank in you own?" What Jesus is asking us in this teaching is how can we help others if we don't first recieve the help that we need. How can we help others if we ourselves are struggling with the same problems? Therefore we have to give our problems up to God so that He can take them away from us and encourage us, so that we can encourage others, who are struggling with the very same problems we faced.