Devotional #19-Overcomers

God often uses the difficulties we’ve gone through to help others. I don’t believe He necessarily brings those difficulties on us. But He allows them to happen and He is with us through them. Seeing a light at the end of the tunnel (with trials), helps us help others when they’re facing the same types of things. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “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.” Someone who has been through a drug addiction understands another person who is facing it. What the overcomer has been through- they can use to understand the pain the other person is going through and encourage them that there is hope and a way out. Someone who has been cheated on in the past can encourage another person who is facing the same thing now. They can be there to comfort them and encourage them that there is still life after adultery. There are so many different scenarios I could list, too many to count. So I just want to encourage you that whatever you’ve been through, whether it was through your own poor decisions, or it was thrust on you, God can use it all to help others that are going through similar things. Sometimes just understanding trials, even if it’s different than what someone else is going through, gives you compassion for what they may be feeling. 1 John 5:4-5 “…for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”