Going Through Hard Times

"One of the reasons we go through hard times is so we can comfort other people who are going through hard times."

Not quite


 This one is almost true but just misses. It’s usually based on experience and the verse that says we are to comfort others with the comfort we have received.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)

One person “rewrote” it in her mind to say, “We go through troubles so that we can comfort others with the comfort we have received.” That’s not what it says, that’s adding to the Word of God. This concept has prompted people to actually seek out hard times, to embrace hard times rather than overcome them when they do come and/or give others who are going through hard times a rather cold comfort—that hard times are good for you.

In addition, the context of this scripture is “sharing in the sufferings of Christ”—persecutions received for being obedient to Jesus’ teachings.