Paul endured some tough moments on his missionary journeys. He was flogged, mobbed, arrested and even stoned and left for dead. A veteran of suffering, he now writes to the Corinthians to share some of what he has learned. We'll go through chapter 1 of second Corinthians over the next few devs...
When we are struggling to "Keep Going" the starting point is to remember _who_ God is. Our security does not come from our strength or our circumstances, but from our conviction and knowledge that He is God and He is good.
How does Paul describe Him?
1. He's God. Sovereign and mighty. Although He has given us free will and our exercise of free will can cause heartache and pain, God holds trouble on a leash and promises that we will not go through more than we can bear. (See 1Cor10:13)
2. He's our compassionate and comforting Father. When we go through trouble and pain, His heart is with us. When a son's girlfriend drops him, an earthly father can't take the pain away, but he can compassionately comfort and console his son. We can receive awesome comfort from God if we can get past our indignation that something has gone wrong and instead of saying "Why did You let this happen?" learn to say "I don't understand why this has happened but I know I need Your help."
3. He's the Father of Jesus. Father and Son suffered incredibly when Jesus died on the cross. At the cross our pain was fully known and carried.
4. His comfort is so powerful that we can become wounded healers. We can overcome our pain and help others. That is God's transforming comfort.
This is our God!
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
