Read 2 Corinthians 1-4
As I listen to the struggles of people I love and look at the trials of my own life, I feel we can relate to Paul who despaired even of life. Sometimes, death seems like a great option but it is the easy escape and we would miss the joys in the midst of the struggles. We would also miss being used to help others along the way, not to speak of our destiny. It is good to read that in God the promises are always a “yes”.
Reading Chapter 2 brings a smile to my face. Paul realizes that a text may not give his true emotions. In his first letter he condemned the man who was having sex with his step mother, but he wanted his readers to know the emotion behind his words. He didn’t have any sad or happy faces to put in the letter to show how he was feeling. So, in this letter he tries to tell them how hard it was to say it. He encourages them to forgive and comfort him least he be swallowed up in his sorrow.
In Chapter three, Paul explains that the Old Testament law and those who live under it live with a vail over their hearts and it is hard to see Jesus and the truth of the gospel through their vail. Those who live in the freedom of the cross don’t have that vail over their hearts and they can see clearly and receive freely.
In Chapter four we return to the fact that our lives are living sacrifices to the Lord. We may be troubled on every side, not able to understand why, persecuted and cast down but we are not without hope or forsaken and will not be destroyed because through these trials Jesus is made alive in us for all to see. Paul ends it with this: our light affliction is but for a moment but it works in us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Lord, may we look at the things that are temporal and see the things that are eternal.
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