Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To the church of God in Corinth, together with all his holy people throughout Achaia:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just yesterday Pastor Bernie and I prayed about my future. I still don't have a full time job and I also don't have a specific ministry beyond the choir. Here I see that Paul is fulfilling "the will of God". Dear God please show me where you want me to work and where you want me to join you in ministry.
During the past two years I have turned to many things for comfort. Food and all I got was fatter than I started. Alcohol and all I got was scared of becoming and alcoholic. Cigars and all I got was my limited income being burned. God and what I got was peace and grace. The grace to forgive my spouse for divorcing me and the grace to accept Christ's forgiveness for my part in the bad marriage. I am free from bitterness (most of the time) and I have been able to help others with their pain.
5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
Everything Paul endured was for the sake of leading others to faith and encouraging and building up others in their faith. I'm convicted of the times that I did not want to get up to go and teach Pioneer Club. My focus was not on the children but on me.
8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.
Paul and Timothy were under so much pressure they wanted to die. I know I've been there and I take comfort that Paul felt that way too. I'm not broken or abnormal or bad Christian.
I also often hear 1 Cor 10:13 misused saying God is not going to give us more than we can handle. That's only applies to temptation and he will provide a way out if we look for it. In ministry and day to day life, God wants us to turn to Him for everything. I don't know if I will have a job before April 18th. I do know that God is in charge and I do not have to worry.
9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
My hope is in the same God that Paul's was. The same God who raised Jesus from the dead. I will trust Him to meet my needs.
God Bless.
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