Be Still And Know

READ: 2 Corinthians 1:3 NLT 'All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort.' Paul is bursting to address lots of issues in this letter. His relationship with the church in Corinth was a difficult one and he will need to defend himself very strongly in the pages that follow. But he begins by reminding the church about the nature of God their Father in Heaven. He reminds them that he is the Father of Jesus and that he is by his nature merciful. As a result of this he is the source of all comfort. The word comfort that the translators have used here is an interesting word but not what I would have chosen. Comfort comes from Latin and literally means ‘with strength’, however, the word doesn’t sound very strong to me. It makes me think of someone coming along with their head on one side and saying,” O dear, poor you. I’m so sorry you’re feeling rough.” A better translation for me would be the word en-courage. That is to say, God doesn’t merely say