Friday, September 1, 2017

Looking for Help

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 botherDoesn’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

Don’t let anyone minimize the wealth your troubles are gaining for you.  They are building God’s disciple into an incredible testimony of grace.  Put that to work today!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!


[1] Title Image: Courtesy  Anne Mehrling 8-20-17 (Used with permission)

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