Friday, September
1, 2017
We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about
the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our
ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on
ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.
2 Corinthians 2:8-9(NLT)
We will do
just about anything to find help when we’ve been pressed up against the wall of
dire human circumstances. Even
self-proclaimed atheists will find a quiet place to talk God into helping them
out if the patch they’re going through is painful enough.
But we
Christians are the strangest of the lot.
If the circumstances we experience are sufficiently threatening, and
there doesn’t seem to be a way out, we begin to hunt for what it is we did to
tick God off that much. After all, when
you’re a believer, and you go to church, serve on committees, tithe your
income, and are nice enough to help little old ladies across the street and don’t
kick the dog…God smooths out the path so all your troubles are little ones and
you can smile all the time; isn’t that the way it works?
Ahem…Not so! Consider Paul’s testimony to this same
Corinthian bunch:
I have worked
harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and
faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave
me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was
beaten with rods. Once I was stoned.
Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I
spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea.
I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers
and from robbers. I have faced danger
from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the
deserts, and on the seas.
2 Corinthians
11:23-26(NLT)
Paul was whipped,
beaten, imprisoned, shipwrecked, robbers and rivers and ungrateful church
members put him out in the cold; he had anything but an easy time of it.
So what’s
the point? What is the purpose of keeping
your nose clean, doing good, worshipping, and serving God, if all it gets you
is the same hard life (and even harder sometimes) than those who sleep-in on
Sundays and live like Hell the rest of the week? I mean, you’ve got to ask the questions: Why
bother? Doesn’t God care?
And as immediately
as you ask the question Paul the servant and sufferer fires back the answer he learned
in the midst of all his trials:
…we stopped
relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.
2 Corinthians 2:9(NLT)
The larger
perspective on whatever trials you may be facing right now is that it is God
alone who raises the dead. You cannot rely
on yourself for that; you can’t even solve the riddles you’re going through
with the IRS, or leukemia, or too many bills, or kids that won’t behave; how
can you possibly deal with resurrection and eternity.
Paul said
he learned to stop relying on all his theological skill set and his
door-opening resume’ of accomplishments, and rely only on God. That
wasn’t easy for a control freak like Paul the Apostle, super-Christian, faster
than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall
buildings in a single bound!
It certainly
was not easy to give up control and accept the life of a servant, trusting only
God, serving only God. But when Paul
decided to lose everything, he gained the peace that passes understanding. When he gave up dictating his will for what he thought life should be
here and now, his heart began to understand some things. He got answers about how the trials and
troubles here, painful as they may be, are a mere wisp of fog that will pass
away to reveal the glory God has prepared for those who love Him.
For You Today
You chew on
that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!
No comments:
Post a Comment