2) He wants you to experience something. He wants you to experience a reality of God in your life - in pain. He wants you to have an experience - not head knowledge; not just to have a verse. He wants you to experience Him, to know the reality. It's not just about the Bible. The Bible points us to a person; so when you look to be comforted by the scriptures, God wants to use the scriptures, to bring you to an experience of Him - so your experience in the problem is changed. Unfortunately most people withdraw.
3) God intends you to be able to minister to others, with the comfort you've received. You can't give easily something to someone else, if you haven't received it yourself; but if you have experienced God in the deep, dark place - come to you in your valley - and you encountered Him, and He reassured your heart, and you overcame your isolation, and strength came in; and you stood and you walked out of that valley, into a place where it all changed - then you have a testimony that someone else needs.
When God allows you to go through difficulties in your life...
1) He wants to deepen your faith in Him. He wants your roots to go down, to engage Him in that problem.
2) He's got people prepared for you, to be able to help when you get out of your problem.
3) They won't get that solution, if you don't break through. That's why we say: people are waiting for you to break through.
This is why your testimony is important. Your testimony is: how I experienced God in my difficulty.
Think of Dave and Janine, when they lost their daughter - how they experienced God upholding them in the midst of their difficulty. I can remember when I went over to my daughter, how as I came - I came there just to be with her, not to solve it - I couldn't solve the problem. When you've lost a child, you can't solve that problem for someone. You can't fix it up. You can't tell them to get over it; you can't tell them: it'll be over soon. You can't tell them: it'll be better.
The person is in deep pain and shock - they're in a place of pain. What they need is someone alongside them. You don't always have to say anything, but I encouraged and directed her heart to the Lord. In the midst of it - right at the most painful time of the funeral, actually at the point of cremation - she had an encounter and saw God, and saw her child with the Lord (amazing isn't it) - and felt comfort. The reality of God comforts us. This is a great thing - God of all comfort.
John 14:6, Jesus said: “I'm not going to leave you alone”. Aloneness is the source of the problem. “I'm going to send you another comforter, even the Holy Spirit, who will never leave you”.
Here's the thing you can absolutely be sure of: even if you've messed up big time, even if you've sinned and failed, and your awareness of God is quite restricted now, and you're aware of your problems, nevertheless He says: “I won't leave you”. He's never going to leave you. He's never going to let you be isolated. You can let yourself be, but He will never isolate you. He will always seek to reconnect with you. Isn't that fantastic?
Romans 15:4 – “Now whatever things were written before, were written for our learning - that we, through patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope”. That's fantastic! Notice: “what's written beforehand” - so the whole of the Bible is written for your benefit.
You read about David going through his mess with Bathsheba - that's written for your benefit. How did he get through it? How did God handle it? How did God treat him? What did God do in the midst of that? How did God help him out of the mess? That's what that's for.