Exploring the Role of God as Comforter

Struggling with the notion of God as a Comforter can leave many of us feeling spiritually adrift, especially when our cultural background clashes with our personal experiences of the Divine. This episode of the God Attachment Healing Podcast peels back the layers of this complex emotion with a blend of heartfelt personal narratives and enlightening research. My colleague, Tim Jantz, joins me to bridge the gap between psychology and theology, offering a perspective that's sure to challenge and deepen your understanding of God's multifaceted character.

There's a profound connection between the way we bond with our parents and how we perceive God, especially during life's trials. I open up about my own parenting journey, reflecting on those critical moments that shaped my children's view of God as a source of comfort. We dissect studies which link the style of parental attachment to one's spiritual and religious struggles, sparking a conversation on the transformative power of a nurturing relationship with our Creator. Listen as we navigate the turbulent waters of anxiety, perfectionism, and the search for an ever-present God in the midst of our imperfections.

As we wrap up, we contemplate the bedrock of a strong spiritual life: prayer, community, and diving into the scriptures. These practices aren't just rituals; they're lifelines that reframe our experience of God's presence in our daily walk. I'm excited to share insights from my upcoming dissertation on attachment and how it's reshaping my understanding of faith. So whether you're wrestling with doubt or searching for spiritual solace, our conversation is a beacon of hope, encouraging you to see God in a light that's both comforting and true to the Christian experience. Join us for this enriching dialogue, and we welcome your questions and topic suggestions to continue this vital discussion.

Chapters

• 0:05 Struggles With Seeing God as Comforter
• 14:51 Parental Attachment and Religious Struggles
• 28:30 Religious and Spiritual Struggles and Comfort
• 37:47 Foundations of Christian Faith

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Alright, everyone, welcome back to the God Attachment Healing Podcast. It's been a couple of weeks since the last time that I did an episode and I'm excited to start up again. I've been working on a number of different projects, and this project that I've been doing has been with a friend of mine, tim Jantz. We're working on a separate podcast that tackles cultural issues from a psychological and a theological, ethical perspective, and it's been really fun kind of doing that together. So that's taken on my time.

Speaker 1: 0:41

For the last couple of weeks I have had a spring break as well, so I had to enjoy that, just kind of resting and taking care of some things here and just kind of enjoying the time with family. So it's been a good time and I have been looking at research articles, journal articles, talking about the spiritual struggles that we see with God as a Comforter. Why is that a struggle for people? So I will be talking about that today the spiritual struggle of seeing God as a Comforter in the midst of struggle. So that is what I'll be discussing today. Again, if you're just tuning in hope you're able to subscribe to the podcast, if you're enjoying it, please leave a review, as I always appreciate hearing your feedback and thank you so much again for tuning in. So, just jumping into the topic, one of the things that I've been doing these past couple of weeks has been looking at a number of journal articles, and I think this will be beneficial.

Speaker 1: 1:44

I want to have this conversation of how the research speaks to real situations that Christians encounter on a day-to-day basis, and one of them is this aspect of why is it difficult for me to see God as someone who can provide comfort, and there are a number of different issues which I'll get into in a little bit, but one of the ones that stands out the most is the cultural component. What does the culture believe about God? And the culture today here in the US has become much more atheist, much more free-spirited, in the sense that they are choosing anything that comes, anything that is spiritual. It's this type of awakening to different religions, and it's a spiritual buffet, as a friend used to put it, where they just pick and choose whatever they like from any religion and they apply that to their lives. But that is not the gospel that we find in the scriptures, nor does it have anything to do with the gospel. So how is it then that there are so many people struggling to see God as a comforter when it seems like we have more access to whether it be religious documents or beliefs or so on and so on, and I think a big part of why we're having an issue with that is because people are trying to create a God of their own.

Speaker 1: 3:11

Either it is a God who provides no comfort at all and is just an overseer of everything that's going on in the world, or is pure comfort and peace and love that there will be no righteous judgment when he returns, and, honestly, you need to see both sides in order to understand the comfort of God. This goes back to the question why does God allow suffering? In order for us to show compassion, we need to be able to see suffering in the lives of others suffering in the world. Now, this does not mean that I enjoy suffering or that we applaud it when it enters into our lives. What I'm saying is that it's hard to provide comfort when you don't feel the pain and loss of life experiences. So comfort can only come, or seems to only come, when there is a struggle or a shift in one's emotional state, where they now become either depressed or sad or angry and they need someone to come alongside them to provide that sense of ease and comfort. I mean, that's really what it is that we're looking for here. But why is it difficult for people to see God as a Comforter, especially in the myths of struggle?

Speaker 1: 4:41

Well, we're going to look at a couple of things here, culture being one of them, but here's some research that shows some frequent backgrounds for religious and spiritual struggles. So here's kind of the things that influence how we view God. Part of this is the confrontation with different worldviews. So everyone is kind of describing their own God and they're saying my God is this, my God is that, my God is that. We as Christians believe that our God is Jesus Christ, who came to earth, god in flesh, died for our sins, rose again on the third day and now is at the right hand of God, the Father, and we are in dwelt with by the Holy Spirit. But that is not the God of other religions. Most other religions have a works-based faith or a works-based belief that if you do X amount of things, x amount of good things, then you will get to heaven. Whatever their description of that is, for us as Christians it is. We are only saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and our reward in heaven is Jesus himself. That is why we're living the life that we're living.

Speaker 1: 6:01

So in order to understand God as a comforter, I have to understand that he is going to come back one day and he's going to apply justice. No, let's think about that for a little bit, because as we talk more about these different Reasons why it's difficult for some people to see God as a comforter, we need to understand who God is, and it's an interesting, dynamic right, because we often tend to only focus on the aspect of him that we can relate to the most. For example, if you grew up in a home where only discipline, truth, rules were executed or were given to you, then it might make more sense to you to see God only as a lion right, and if you grew up in a home that was only caring and gentle and Positive, that it makes more sense to you to see Jesus as a lamb, right. So we have these two different views based on our upbringings, and how do we find that middle ground where we can understand that God can be both Lion and the lamb right, because that is exactly what he is and he applies those different roles in different Situations for different people. For example, as I continue to talk about those who struggle with Seeing God as a comforter, loss of interpersonal relationships. So then they start to question God, god, why did you allow this to happen? So they start again I can't see God as a comforter when he took something away from me that I that I loved, that I wanted Sexual abuse. That's a big one.

Speaker 1: 7:47

I work with a lot of clients who have had that in their past. The people who are supposed to protect them are the ones that hurt them. So when you hear that God is a comforter and that he is a protector, it doesn't make sense for that person because their history with that is Is anyone who's supposed to protect them did damage to them, hurt them in some way, shape or form. And the sad thing is that Often, even in Christian circles, this does happen. So again, these are these are barriers to seeing God as a comforter the different experiences that people have with their parents, with any authority figures, and if they're negative, they start, especially if their authority figures within the church. Their Connection is that maybe God is like this too right, because some people will read scripture and they'll see, okay, I understand that cognitively, that God is just, that he is merciful, that he's loving, that he is kind, that he will bring back Judgment, like we understand that at a cognitive level, but the experiential level conflicts with that right and that's essentially what happens when you have people who grew up in the church and have people have their parents or other people in the church or something negative happens to them and they, because it's associated to church, because it's associated to God, they begin to believe that God is the way that those people were who hurt them in the church. Now I want to make it clear, because I'm not talking about just, you know, someone didn't say hi to you. I'm not talking about you weren't invited to a specific event. I'm not talking about that type of hurt. I'm talking about deep, painful hurt which is often related to these forms, different forms of abuse. I'll talk a little bit more about that as we move forward.

Speaker 1: 9:37

But again, a lot of these things, a lot of these factors that contribute to someone not being able to see God as a comforter are also Personality oriented. For example, those who have high neuroticism, the Inclination to see everything in a negative light if it's high, they will struggle with seeing God as a comforter. Okay, if they have pessimism, if they have an anger trait that also Influences their view of God as a comforter. If they're narcissistic, if they're entitled or if they're low Unagreeableness, that will also be a barrier for them to see God as a comforter. And the research also shows that Religion is a source of stress in young people Relatively more often than in older ones. Again, that speaks to the cultural shift that we're seeing is that now there's so much more. There's this religious buffet that people are choosing from, to pick and choose whatever it is that they like, and they go and make their own religion especially. So we kind of have a background of the types of people that will struggle with seeing God as a Comforter.

Speaker 1: 10:49

But why is it that it's only in this relationship, in seeking God? Right, because people provide comfort. But remember that every single person, because we were made in the image of God, every single person desires to connect with something beyond themselves, and that is God himself, through Jesus. Right, we want to connect with something more or outside of ourselves, and we see in Scripture that we are to seek out Jesus Christ and him alone, and In that process then we see the influence of the church. The church has a huge role in how we are able to experience God. Now, me and my friend Tim, we're gonna do a an episode on how the church, how they use music, emotions or in words to lure people in and to see a false version of who God is. But all that to say is that, you know, we, we go to church. We get to experience God in a certain way with a community of brothers and sisters who also believe that the Bible is true, and what we, what we find, is that the reason why it matters.

Speaker 1: 12:07

To a lot of people, religion involves seeking comfort, attachment, finding meaning and coping with challenges. So those who have a strong Religious attachment right. So again, this, this specific research article, speaks to religious attachment in general, so I'm gonna speak in that regard in that space. Not all religious thoughts bring Consolation. Some individuals direct blame and anger towards God during difficult times, and we can understand that, right. We can understand that when difficult times arise, if a person doesn't have a strong faith, they can question God. But it's also important to understand that if someone does have strong faith, they may have the freedom, or they will have the freedom, to question God. It's never done in a manner of disrespect, though. One of the things that you'll find with genuine Christians is that they're willing to ask those questions in a respectful way, but also in a confused tone, like they don't understand why God is allowing Something to happen. All right, people make choices.

Speaker 1: 13:17

We have sinful Desires, we have sinful Inclinations. The Bible talks about the flesh being at war with the spirit. With the Holy Spirit living inside of us. We are countering the effects of sin in our lives, right. So there's this continual, as the Bible would call the sanctification process. Right, we're looking to be sanctified through Jesus. Other aspects of this.

Speaker 1: 13:43

Research shows that struggle encompasses the stress, conflicts related to faith and difficulties in coping with stress induced by life events. So people begin to struggle with their faith when they encounter these different areas of life. And again, there's two parts to our relation with God. One is the cognitive and one is the experiential. In the attachment literature, what you'll find is the experience of God is known as the God image. How I experience God, how do I feel when I think about God. And again, there's a lot of connection between how you feel when you think about your parents. So, for example, if you have a strained relationship with a parent and you feel tense, you feel anxious, you feel scared, all of these things when you think about God, you might feel the same way. You might feel angry towards God, you might feel scared of God, like he's going to punish me if I do something wrong here, because that's what it was like with my parents, right? So you have kind of that experience. So people struggle with that.

Speaker 1: 14:51

Our parents are our first, and I think this is why God designed it this way, right, god designed the family father, mother. That's the core unit. And then you have children and the parents are to model the relationship that they have with God To their children, right? And that's where you see the fruits of the spirit love, joy, patience, self-control and so on. So we need to model that. The parents need to model that for our children, okay so, in order for our children to see God in an accurate light through his word. But it's also going to be informed by how parents relate to their children. So, speaking to parents right now, if you have young children, one of the things that you want to do is display those fruits of the spirit very, very early on.

Speaker 1: 15:43

One of the things that I did with all three of my boys. I would wake up in the middle of the night to tend to the boys whenever they would cry. So I would give it maybe 30 seconds, tops maybe a minute, before going into the room and seeing what it is that they needed, so sometimes just holding them. Sometimes they were hungry, so I know it was time for them to be fed, and sometimes it was just being there with them, right? So, essentially, what you wanted to, or what I wanted to communicate, was if you have any need, I will be here for you, right? And a lot of parents misinterpret this and say well, you're going to get them swallowed, you're going to get them to fully depend on you. Yeah, that's exactly what I was wanting to do.

Speaker 1: 16:27

Because they're young, they can't meet their own needs. There will come a time where they will be able to meet their needs, but when they encounter a moment of distress or tribulation or suffering, they will know, because of their experience with me, because of their experience with their mother, that they can depend on us for helping meet their needs. Right, they will be able to see that and that will bring a sense of relief to them. So, again, if they can do that, when they're going through a time of struggle as they continue to get older, right, they're going to tell me you know, they're going to school and maybe a kid made fun of them. Hey, daddy, a kid made fun of me and I started engaging them. I talked to them what happened, you know, and I'm there with them.

Speaker 1: 17:10

They're able to tell me and come to me and tell me those stressors and I'm able to just talk to them about it and ease their pain and just be there for them and be a source of comfort. If they have multiple experiences of that with me, then they will then associate that to their relationship with God. So we make these natural connections between our relationship with our parents and our relationship with God. And if our parents weren't comforting during times of distress, it's going to be very easy to see God as someone who's not able to provide comfort in times of distress, even when you have the theological knowledge or understanding that he can do that. Again, your experience is going to tell you differently. We have to tie both those things together. So for parents, it's very important that you're able to model this for your children, that when they're going through a time of distress, no matter how young they are, right, no matter how young they are, that they're able to turn to you during that time and the treatment, able to be a calm and restful presence for them. You're helping them regulate their emotions. They don't understand that. I mean if people, adults lose control of their emotions and we expect for little children to be able to hold it all together Now, I do have expectations for how they need to behave in certain situations and how they can control their emotions right. This doesn't mean to remove the expectations. It means teach them how can they regulate those emotions, because they're going to have big, big emotions and we need to teach them how to regulate those emotions and, again, a big part of that is how we meet those needs when they encounter difficulty.

Speaker 1: 18:50

This study that I was looking at relates parental attachment experiences to religious and spiritual struggles, again focusing on attachment theory, secure, avoided and anxious patterns. This study also explores how insecure attachment relates to greater religious and spiritual struggle, predicting that a distant or cruel God image mediates these relationships. Basically, what's happening here is that if a person is anxious, they often will see God as distant or cruel. If you see God as distant or cruel, it's going to make you anxious. It makes sense. It makes sense. If God is distant, then he wants nothing to do with me. If he's cruel, then I'm going to be misunderstood or I'm going to be punished for something that I don't even know that I'm working through. You're going to be on edge. You're going to be anxious. You're going to be wondering about making sure every single thing that you do is right. This often leads to this desire or this attempt for perfectionism in your Christian walk. If everything that you did was either criticized or was addressed, even if it could be the smallest thing, if it was a mistake and it was highlighted by your parents, then you're going to be hyperactive. You're going to be hyper aware of everything that you do. It will make you anxious in your relationship with God.

Speaker 1: 20:14

We talk about the God image. I mentioned how that often is the experience that one has when they think about God. How do you feel when you think about God? I grew up in a Southern Baptist church. That was my background. It influences a lot of the way that I think about counseling, the way that I think about human functioning, the way that I think about my relationship with God. All of those things. I'm very thankful for the upbringing that I had With that.

Speaker 1: 20:50

There are some things that I would learn later on that I needed to change. I needed to change how I saw God from a relational standpoint. I knew about God. I was taught a lot of great concepts and a lot of great theology and a lot of great doctrine about my faith. I understood at a cognitive level what it was to believe in Jesus Christ, what it was to have a relationship with Him. I never experienced what that actually would look like. I just didn't know that I was supposed to feel anything. I just knew. On the other hand, you have people who all they have is just feeling they feel so good about God. The theological understanding or doctrinal understanding is limited In deficiency on either side. Right, I needed to experience God through his word, through community, through prayer, in a different way. I only had a theological understanding of who he was Right thinking that because I knew that I had a relationship with him. So a common example of this could be.

Speaker 1: 22:02

So I'm a huge Michael Jordan fan. For those who know me, you probably have heard me say that multiple, multiple times, but I know a lot about Michael Jordan. I have seen his highlights so many times and I still, even when I see the same clip over and over, I can still like it because it's shown on different, different pages. Right, so I can follow him and I can say that I know a lot about him and it makes me in a sense feel close to him. When I was growing up and I was playing basketball, I would stick out my tongue and I would drive to the basket the same way that he would. I mean, practice his moves, practice the fade away, everything that he did. I imitated it as perfectly as I could, right, and that made me feel as though I was really like Michael Jordan, even though obviously I knew that I wasn't and I'm not right. But because I knew so much about him and because I saw how he Played and because I was inspired by that it, it made me feel in a sense connected to him. Right, but I don't know him. I don't know him personally. I don't. One day I would like to, you know, meet him, but I don't.

Speaker 1: 23:16

And it's kind of the same way in our relationship with God, where we read so much trip from we know about God, but that doesn't mean that we actually have a relationship with him, and this is the. This is a struggle that people will have is that they know so much about God, but once they enter a, you know, difficult situation, they begin to see their faith falter. And this is important to understand, because that is not necessarily a sign that you don't know God, but it is an indicator of how close you are with God. Right, I'm always reminded of the Peter moment, when Jesus followers and his side you know everyone was following Jesus. They wanted to see him do miracles. They wanted to see what was the next big thing that he was gonna do. And there was a time where he he wasn't doing that anymore. They had to. They decided to leave and Jesus turns over to his disciples and he says do you want to leave as well or will you leave as well? And Peter turns to him and says, lord, where will we go? You know you have the words of eternal life and that's kind of the.

Speaker 1: 24:22

The idea here is that when you go into a spiritual struggle, a tribulation, a difficulty, suffering of any sort, your response will be Similar to that of Peters, like where do I go, lord? Do I turn to vices. Do I turn to Drugs? I turn to alcohol, sex. What do I turn to? And why would I turn to that? You know you're the one who has kept me here. You're the one who's kept my faith moving forward. You have the words of eternal life. There's nowhere else for me to go right. So a genuine Christian will have that response.

Speaker 1: 25:03

They will struggle, they will ask questions, they will wonder why things are happening, but they will turn and see God for who he is in that moment and he is going to provide Comfort because he understands, you know he understands those struggles. I mean, you could think of Job. His friends, even his close, didn't understand what was what he was going through and how do I know that? Because they started blaming him for the suffering that was going on in his life. You imagine that. And the Bible says Joe was a just man. So things happen to him and the Lord, you know, ultimately, you know, gave him more than he than he ever had. But you know, when you hit those moments, what Job needed at that time was comfort from his friends, not more advice, not more talking, not more Accusations like just presence, sitting with him providing comfort. And when you have multiple experiences where people did not provide that comfort. It can be, especially within the church. It can be very easy to believe that God is not going to provide that comfort.

Speaker 1: 26:17

Now there's this other theory and I've talked about this before. It's called the compensation theory and what this theory posits is that if you grew up not in a Christian home and you come to faith later faith in Jesus later in life, you see God as someone who replaces or compensates for everything that you were lacking when you were younger. So if you had really bad parents maybe they were neglectful, abusive whatever the case is you come to faith in Christ later on in life and you see God start to fill all of those gaps in your life and you feel like man. God has filled all of this in my life. This is incredible. This is the best relationship I've ever had. So he compensates for everything that was lacking. For those who grew up in the church, every experience that they've had with people within the church, with their reading of Scripture, that begins to correspond with how they begin to see that God later on in their lives. So, for example, if they grew up with loving, caring parents, then they will grow up to see God as loving and caring If they grew up with judgmental, harsh parents, and they will grow up to see God as judgmental and harsh, and that's just all they know. So it corresponds, their childhood corresponds with how they've you got now in the present.

Speaker 1: 27:34

So there are a number of different factors and here's the six domains that are addressed when we talk about religious struggle. There is the divine struggle, which involves negative emotions centered on beliefs about God or in a perceived relationship with God. So there's that aspect Negative emotions centered on beliefs about God. Then there's the demonic struggle, which involves concern that the devil or evil spirits are attacking an individual or causing negative events. Then there's the interpersonal struggle, which is concerned about negative experiences with religious people or institutions. We have the moral struggle, which involves wrestling with attempts to follow moral principles and feelings of worry or guilt about offenses the subjects perceive themselves to have committed. That's a really big one, especially for those who struggle with anxious attachment.

Speaker 1: 28:30

Then you have the religious doubt struggle, which involves feeling troubled by doubts or questions about one's religious and spiritual beliefs. This is something that happens very common with students who enter college. So if they grew up in a Christian home, they go into college and they begin to have all of these questions because they begin interacting with people who do not believe the same way that they believe. So they will often have these doubts or questions. And lastly, there's the ultimate meaning struggle, which involves concern about not finding deep meaning in one's life. So these are the different domains that were assessed in this study. It involves 157 adults ages 18 to 70, predominantly Roman Catholic, and it examined the relationship between parental attachment, god images and religious and spiritual struggles. So those are the six that I mentioned.

Speaker 1: 29:27

There is this scale that they use, which is very important. I think it's important for you guys to help you understand your relationship with God. This is the God image scale. I've referenced that quite a few times today, but basically what it does is it starts with a statement and says I imagine God as being, and then it's followed by 10 adjectives, which are divided into these subscales the loving subscale I imagine God as being loving, caring and forgiving. Then you have the cruel subscale, which is I imagine God as being cruel, unkind and rejecting. And then you have the last one, the distant subscale, which is I imagine God as being distant, remote, unavailable and uninvolved. So this is probably the last one, the distant one is most likely the atheist, when their experience of God is that he is not involved at all in my life, in the lives of anyone in the world. He's just not existent, right? Or you have those who are I don't know if it's agnostics, that would be the right word. I'm gonna have to look it up just because, making sure, yeah, so it could be the agnostics who kind of just feel that nothing can be known. God can't be known, so they don't see him as involved in their lives. So these are the things that are, that are measured or that were used to measure in this particular study. So if you want to kind of get an idea of where you stand with this, see which one of these made the most sense to you.

Speaker 1: 31:24

I imagine God as being what Out of all those 10 adjectives? Where do you, how do you see God? And that can speak to how you're going to experience God. That's really what it's coming down to Most people.

Speaker 1: 31:39

If you're listening to this podcast and you're just intrigued and maybe you're a new believer, maybe a lot of this is starting to make sense. Like you know, when I, when I receive the Lord, like I saw God as loving, caring and forgiven because he, I lived this life of sin and I wanted nothing to do with him and yet he saved me. I broke down and I just repented of my sins and the Lord restored my life. Right, so that makes a lot of sense, right, for those of you who grew up in the church and saw, maybe grew up in a culture that was maybe more judgmental and cruel and demanding, I mean, it might make sense for you to score high on the cruel subscale where you see God as cruel and kind and rejecting. Right, if you did something bad, you kind of felt that rejection from your parents or rejection from people at church, and so, again, that informs how you experience God.

Speaker 1: 32:39

And if you had people who just were absent, specifically your parents, like if they just weren't present in your life, if they were always doing something, maybe even being busy in the church, like maybe you see God as distant because you just never had a relationship with your parents, right? So how could I have a relationship with God when I can't even have one with my parents, who I see on a regular basis or don't see on a regular basis, right? So these are kind of all of the things that address this aspect of why can't I see God as a comforter? Because there's all these different elements that play a role in that. The best way, or one of the ways in which we can see God as a comforter is if we are able to see him as loving, caring and forgiving. So if that's you right now, who you don't feel close to God, but you want to feel close to God, I would encourage you to read passages in scripture that talk about God's love, care and forgiveness.

Speaker 1: 33:41

Okay, and then this is the important part, because you may, you may, like Sam, I've been reading that. I've read that all my life, all throughout my life. My parents taught me that, my pastor taught me that, my teachers taught me that, like that, god is loving, caring and forgiving. Like I know that, but I haven't experienced it. So a big part of that could be your relationship with your parents. Not all the time. Right, you might say, no, well, my parents were loving and caring. I still don't get it. You know, again, there could be other close relationships. Any close relationship is going to activate your attachment style. Okay, so it could have been, maybe not your parents, maybe it was a relationship that you had. Maybe you dated someone for many years and then you guys broke up and you know that left you hurt and as though that person didn't love or care for you, right? So that might be why you see God now as that.

Speaker 1: 34:32

So what I would encourage you to do is, as you read those passages of scripture, you want to reinforce that with relationships with people who are loving, caring, kind, forgiving. Right that they display those characteristics. They are going to help you see God in you, like now. God uses those people. Okay, god will use people in your life to show you the different facets of who he is, right.

Speaker 1: 35:01

So for me, when I went through my own struggles and only understood truth, I began to think negatively about God's kindness and forgiveness because I didn't have anyone who was able to display it to me, right? But then, in the midst of going through graduate school and then getting a job, like God started to provide people who just showed me tremendous kindness, tremendous care, tremendous love that I hadn't experienced as much before and that was very encouraging for me. So I started to see this different side of who God was, even though cognitively I knew that he was, that I hadn't experienced that. So God used these people in my life to show me this side of him, the loving side of him. I already knew the truth, the justice, the just God right, who is going to bring judgment on judgment day. Like I knew that God and I knew the righteous God and I knew the God who would defend us and would kill all of our enemies. Like I knew that God right and I knew cognitively the God who also showed compassion by just had an experience that. So God will use different people in your life to show you different aspects of himself and hopefully shows you someone who is a comforter right.

Speaker 1: 36:30

To close, I'm going to share two verses with you guys here. Psalm 18, verse two. Again, this is going to speak to the reason why God can provide comfort is found here in Psalm 18, verse two the Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer. My God is my rock and whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold Right. When you know that's the God that you serve, you feel comforted by that right. You feel as though there's nothing to worry about. And that is exactly what God does. He is our rock, our fortress, our deliverer.

Speaker 1: 37:12

Another verse, 2 Corinthians, chapter one, verses three to four, says 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. Right? So allow for God to comfort you during this time. Whatever it is that you're experiencing, whatever it is that you're struggling with, allow for God to comfort you. He will do it, he will provide and he will provide you with the people necessary.

Speaker 1: 37:47

Again, I'm going to go back to the big three, which is prayer, community, god's word. If you find a way to integrate that and maybe not integrate, maybe put that as the foundation of your life then you will begin to see God in a different light, because he will use His word, he will use your direct communication with Him through prayer and he will use your church worship community. So I hope this was of an encouragement to you. If you have any questions or would like to submit any new topics, feel free to do so. I will bring back another topic next week through a different journal article. Again, I'm working towards finding something for my dissertation. Obviously, it's going to be involving attachment, and this also helps me learn and understand more about the difference for those that we encounter as Christians. So thank you again for listening, guys. I will talk to you next week, take care.