Month: November 2022

2 Corinthians 1:3-11 (Phillips) Thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He is our Father and the source of all mercy and comfort. For He gives us comfort in our trials so that we in turn may be able to give the same sort of strong sympathy to others in theirs. Indeed, experience shows that the more we share Christ’s suffering the more we are able to give of His encouragement. This means that if we experience trouble, we can pass on to you comfort and spiritual help; for if we ourselves have been comforted we know how to encourage you to endure patiently the same sort of troubles that we have ourselves endured. We are quite confident that if you have to suffer troubles as we have done, then, like us, you will find the comfort and encouragement of God.

^8-11 We should like you, our brothers, to know something of what we went through in Asia. At that time, we were completely overwhelmed, the burden was more than we could bear, in fact we told ourselves that this was the end. Yet we believe now that we had this experience of coming to the end of our tether that we might learn to trust, not in ourselves, but in God who can raise the dead. It was God who preserved us from imminent death, and it is he who still preserves us. Further, we trust him to keep us safe in the future, and here you can join in and help by praying for us, so that the good that is done to us in answer to many prayers will mean eventually that many will thank God for our preservation.

Observation

Paul certainly was qualified to talk about troubles.  He had many as he traveled among the unsaved to share the Gospel.  In spite of all that he experienced, he saw troubles and trials not as barriers to what God wanted done but rather as opportunities to trust in God and grow in faith – “At that time we were completely overwhelmed, the burden was more than we could bear, in fact we told ourselves that this was the end.  Yet we believe now that we had this experience of coming to the end of our tether that we might learn to trust, not in ourselves, but in God who can raise the dead.”  

Paul tells us that it is in our difficult and trying times that we will find Jesus more present to bring comfort.  He even says trouble is the pathway to equipping us to bring that same comfort and encouragement to others in their desperate times.  “For He gives us comfort in our trials so that we in turn may be able to give the same sort of strong sympathy to others in theirs.”  So, rather than crying out to God for rescue as we feel like we are hanging on to the end of our ropes, Paul tells us to cry out to God to teach us – in that moment, that place, that experience – how to trust even more in Him so we can become His instrument of comfort, encouragement and grace to others who are also finding themselves at the end of their ropes.  

Impact on Me

Paul is asking me to change my perspective about the journey from the beginning to the end of my rope.  Normally, there is panic, hopelessness, fear as I get closer to the end of the rope.  Of course, I have been praying as I was sliding all the way down the rope.  However, as I get nearer to the end, I tend to cry out things like, “God, are you listening?  Have you forgotten my address?  Don’t You see what’s going on here?”  Generally, the closer to the end of the rope, the more the focus is on my predicament, God’s seemingly poor timing and what I can do to keep from falling off.  Am I alone in this?

Paul is asking me to keep my focus on God in my desperate times because He never stops listening or seeing me.  He always knows exactly where I am in the journey along the rope.  If I will look to and for Him as I slide down that rope, I will not only find Him faithful and right on time, but also learn how to comfort and encourage others who find themselves in the same predicament.  While the journey down my rope might have different causes than someone else’s, comfort and encouragement from the Holy Spirit will perfectly fit moment of every trip down the rope.

Prayer

Father God, You always have my best at heart. You are more interested in my character than my comfort, teaching me to walk by faith rather than live by superficial duty and tradition, taking me on the life journeys that will allow me to experience Your presence and peace rather than the easy ways I would choose. Help me to look for You and to You in every difficulty so the trouble does not become bigger than Your working within me through it. Change my perspective so I never lose Your light in my darkest circumstances and will be able to bring Your comfort and care to others who feel they are approaching the end of their ropes. Make it so, in Jesus’ name.

Romans 12 :1-3 NKJV I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. ³ For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 

Romans 12:1-3 MSG So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. ³ I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

Observation

The great commandment can be summed up by “Love God with all you have and are and love others in the same way and with the same passion as you want to be loved.”  The commandment says nothing about me being loved, but that is the point.  In God’s call to become selfless is His promise to care and provide for us – “God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering…. fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out…. God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”  All of this is what God is prepared to do in us when we trust Him enough to focus on love God and love others above ourselves.

Because Paul understands how we are as humans, he says he must remind us “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think” because of any recognition or praise we get for our actions.  God determines what gifts He gives and to whom.  If any of us begin to think our gift or the recognition by others of it makes us more spiritual or special in God’s eyes, we have missed it.  Part of placing our lives before God as an offering is accepting the call on our lives without wishing we had someone else’s or becoming inflated with pride because our gift gains recognition.  Immediately after these verses, Paul speaks about the body and how every part needs to function for the body to work efficiently.  Clog up an invisible part and the whole body suffers! 

Impact on Me

This chapter is a place I come to remind myself of the practical outpouring of love to God and others.  The last half is my challenge.  Paul lists ways to enforce that sacrifice on in my everyday life.  I don’t know that taking up that challenge would be possible without embracing the verses that precede that get the focus off me! 

If I will commit to become that living sacrifice by putting myself fully in His hands, God will gift me as He sees best, something that will bring true satisfaction and fulfillment to me.  In that surrender of all that I think I need, want or dream to be, I will receive His best because only God can truly know what will thrill my heart. “The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.”  I pray that I am done telling God how to run my life!  I am ready to listen and obey.

Prayer

Lord God, Almighty and Everlasting Father, Creator, Savior, Lover of my soul, I come to you with praise and gratitude for Who You are and What You have done for me.  All that I choose to do for You is done by You working in and through me, leaving behind the blessing and grace to mature me in the process.  Remind me always that my best will always be accomplished by faithfully walking in the footsteps You place before me, being a support to others that endeavor to do the same, and encourage those who have wandered to find the way back.  I ask this all in the name of Jesus.  Make it so.