2 Corinthians 1-3
Special Training
The Apostle Paul left Corinth and ended up in Ephesus. His ministry in Ephesus went well but those who opposed him started a riot in the city and Paul had to leave. The church in Corinth sent him a letter which Paul answered in 1 Corinthians. Titus was to deliver the letter to the church. The plan was for Titus to meet up with Paul in Troas but Paul ran into problems and Titus was not there when Paul arrived. Paul had also planned to go to Corinth but that plan got blocked as well.
How do you react when your plans get blocked and you are faced with hardship and difficulty? If we jump ahead to Chapter 11 we realize that Paul went through extreme difficulties.
In Chapter 1:8-10 we read, “For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope, And He will yet deliver us. NASB
God does much of His teaching and training through experience. From experience we can learn great lessons that will stick much better in our memory than if we just read and tried to remember the lessons. Paul and his companions learned to trust God the hard way, through the difficulties they faced. Those of us who read these words can benefit from them if we will take them to heart and trust God. Often times, when things go wrong and difficulties arise, it is easy to think we have sinned and God is disciplining us or that God is mad at us. That was not the case with what Paul went through.
God knew what was ahead for Paul. He also knows what is ahead for us. The difficulties Paul went through were preparation for what was ahead as we will read in Acts 21-27.
The lesson here is that when we go through difficult things, to the point where we have come to the end of ourselves, we will find that we can trust God and He can do far beyond anything we can ask or imagine. Ephesians 3:20
No matter what you are going through trust God and keep your eyes on the Lord. He will show Himself strong.
Pastor Dave.