God Comforts the Depressed

Great is my confidence in you; great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort; I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction. For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within. But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus; and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he reported to us your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me; so that I rejoiced even more. (2 Corinthians 7:4-7)

Sovereignty is at the forefront of my mind because of the Desiring God conference. I was reading Tim Challies live blog from the conference. It is always the big controversial thing to talk about God being sovereign over calamity (a sweet truth that I would never deny). Sometimes we Calvinists have a tendency to focus so much on God being in control of bad, that I wonder if we forget to praise Him for the good things that happen. This text proves that Paul thinks of God as being in control of blessings. In fact, Paul says that "God...comforted us by the coming of Titus; and...also by the comfort with which he was comforted in [them]." So, in Paul's mind, it was not Titus that comforted them but God that used Titus to comfort them. God was the one who providentially comforted them through Titus. I think this is a lesson in the way that we should talk about good things happening to us in our lives. The fact is, people don't talk like this today. Christians rarely talk this way! We would do well to follow Paul's example to give credit (glory) where credit (glory) us due! God is sovereign. If a blessing comes to you, it didn't come from Karma or because "what goes around comes around". It came from God. Let's start reflecting a Biblical vocabulary when good things happen. We calvinists affirm the sovereignty of God in suffering. Let us not forget to praise God and reflect with our speech to others that "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." (James 1:17) This is a strange way of speaking in today's entitled, Godless, man-centered, affluent America.