2 Corinthians 1:3 -14The Message (MSG)
The Rescue
3-5 … He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.
6-7 When we suffer for Jesus, it works out for your healing and salvation. If we are treated well, given a helping hand and encouraging word, that also works to your benefit, spurring you on, face forward, unflinching. Your hard times are also our hard times. When we see that you’re just as willing to endure the hard times as to enjoy the good times, we know you’re going to make it, no doubt about it.
8-11 We don’t want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us…It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it. We felt like we’d been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally—not a bad idea since he’s the God who raises the dead! And he did it, rescued us from certain doom. And he’ll do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need rescuing. You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation—I don’t want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God’s deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.
12-14 Now that the worst is over, we’re pleased we can report that we’ve come out of this with conscience and faith intact, and can face the world—and even more importantly, face you with our heads held high. But it wasn’t by any fancy footwork on our part. It was God who kept us focused on him, uncompromised. Don’t try to read between the lines or look for hidden meanings in this letter. We’re writing plain, unembellished truth, hoping that you’ll now see the whole picture as well as you’ve seen some of the details. We want you to be as proud of us as we are of you when we stand together before our Master Jesus.
Last night Hunter, my almost 11 year old, had a splinter. It was a tiny, but a mighty, splinter. He didn’t want me to touch it, but wanted to take care of it himself. It was the tiniest thing, but was causing him some pain. After he successfully pulled it out, he asked why did something so small cause so much pain. Then he followed it with a question that has been rolling through my head the last few weeks, “Why does God cause pain or bad things to happen?” I looked at him and told him the truth, “I don’t know, but what I do know is that we learn from these experiences. For example, I wanted to take control of pulling out the splinter, but you didn’t want me to touch it. I had to sit and let you take control, which is hard for me to do. Hunter, what you learned is that you can do something even though it can be painful. The pain is temporary, but you survived.”
Now I know that a splinter is a tiny, minuscule object compared to the pain and suffering that many of us have overcome, and still overcoming, over the last few weeks. C. S. Lewis, who watched his beloved wife die of cancer, put it this way: "But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world."
We don’t know what eternity looks like. We don’t even know what tomorrow looks like, but what I do know is that HE works everything out for our good.
My prayer today is that wherever you are is that you take a moment and truly pray for those effected by the recent hurricanes, Harvey, Irma, and now Maria. Let’s use this opportunity to be HIS megaphone and reflect HIS love through our actions and words.
Be Blessed!
