Humbled that the King would use me, a lowly servant

Today I was privileged to have a conversation with a friend who is very near and dear to my heart. We talk fairly regularly, and I enjoy every conversation; I always hang up the phone in a much better mood than when I first picked it up. After our conversation this morning, I was really struck by how God has blessed us both greatly through this friendship. It is a friendship in which we are a source understanding, encouragement, strength, comfort, joy, and of laughter for one another.

We have both been trying to navigate similar difficult situations and I feel that we have held each other's hands through many of the roughest patches. It has been neat to see how God uses her to speak to me as she shares her heart openly and honestly, and it has been humbling to see how God has used me to speak to her as she encounters so many hurts and struggles that I have trodden through myself. Since God comforted me first, I am able to provide comfort to her in turn. I praise the Lord that he is a God who uses flawed human beings to help in doing his work. I am deeply humbled that God has used my pain and brokenness to speak to another hurting heart, because I know the light that can be brought to the heart's inner darkness by simply knowing you are understood by someone else. It is an unspeakable wonderful and moving privilege. It is an honor.

I do not deserve to be used in such an amazing way, and it's not like God needs my help to fulfill his purposes. Yet God answered my prayers for him to speak through me to my friend in her hurt and need, and he answered that prayer very clearly during our conversation. After I had shared what God had been speaking to the pain in my heart recently, she told me that it was really what she needed to hear at that moment, and that my words had really hit her hard. Tears welled up in my eyes, not only because I understood and felt her pain, but mostly because I knew that my words were actually God's, being spoken through me to her heart.

Those small moments of spiritual intimacy with God, where he uses me in his work, make the pain and suffering and brokenness worth it. God uses all of the difficult things in our lives to call forth beauty and bring glory to his name. How can I not be humbled to know that the King would use me, a lowly servant? And how can I not rejoice in my sufferings, as Paul tells us we ought, when I know that "the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ"? (2 Cor. 1:5)

There is always a bigger picture than what I can grasp. But, I know that God has comforted me greatly in the trials and suffering I have faced. He continues to comfort me now. And I know that in the future he will remain a comfort to me as well. Now, I pray that God would continue to use me and my experiences of divine comfort to bring comfort to others who face their own trials and suffering. I delight in seeing God's hand bringing light and hope to a bleak situation. I delight in seeing him glorified. I am humbled by his great love for me, and every single one of his children. And in this new humility, I find great encouragement.

"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ."
(2 Corinthians 1:3-5)