Thanksgiving for God’s Compassion and Comfort

3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in all affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, thus through Christ our comfort overflows also. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort that is at work in the patient endurance of the same sufferings that we also suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we[fn] know that as you are sharers in the sufferings, so also you will be sharers in the comfort.

8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning our affliction that happened in the province of Asia,[fn] that we were burdened to an extraordinary degree, beyond our strength, so that we were in despair even of living. 9 But we ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves, so that we would not be putting confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, 10 who delivered us from so great a risk of death, and will deliver us, in whom we have put our hope that he will also deliver us again, 11 while[fn] you also join in helping on our behalf[fn] by prayer, so that thanks may be given on our behalf[fn] by many persons for this gracious gift given to us through the help of many.