When a cup is filled to overflowing, whatever spills over the edge is the same as what's being poured in. That is a natural process that I can understand.
But here is a supernatural process beyond my understanding: If suffering is poured into a Christian, the Christian will overflow. But what spills over is different from what is poured in. Suffering goes in but comfort comes out.
This law of flow and overflow is expressed in 2 Corinthians 1:5, "As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ." The word abound means "to exist in abundance, to exceed a certain measure, to remain." It is the same word used of the 12 baskets of food "left over" after Jesus miraculously fed thousands of people with 5 loaves and 2 fish (Jn. 6:12-13).
When we experience tribulation for being a Christian, and suffering is poured into our lives, God will transform it by His supernatural grace and power. Another translation reads, "Just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows" (2 Cor. 1:5).
When trouble flows in, look to God for His overflowing comfort--first to us, then through us to others. — David C. McCasland
When we experience suffering,
God's comfort will abound;
For tribulations teach us where
True comfort can be found. --Sper
God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.