Don't give up
“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.” (Philippians 1:21-26)
A wise once man once warned me against comparing myself to others, because we so often compare what we know about ourselves with what we don’t know about someone else. Facebook has become notorious for this: we compare our screaming children, struggling marriage, and monotonous routines against the pictures of smiling children, a man’s effusive praise for his wife, and the latest Caribbean vacation photos, and we can’t decide whether to curl up in the fetal position or stab someone.
When it comes to the people of the Bible, we can fall into the same trap. We can assume that because someone is in the Bible, they must be spiritual giants, existing on some separate plane of existence from us. Take the Apostle Paul, for instance. This giant of the faith was responsible for planting churches all over the Middle East, and wrote half the New Testament. Surely the man must have enjoyed unbroken communion with Jesus and prayed in his sleep.
But when you read Paul’s letters closely, you see that he did not just glide through times of suffering like it was no big deal. For example, in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, Paul writes “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” Apparently life was so hard for Paul that he was in despair and felt as if he was going to die. And in Philippians 1:21-26, cited above, Paul (writing from prison) tells the Philippian church that he would rather be dead than go on living. But for their sake, he concludes, he would continue to press on.
The truth is that life is hard, people are sinners, and we are not the only ones who go through hard times. Paul suffered to the point of wanting to die and be with Jesus, as many of us do. He needed God’s strength daily, as well as the reminder that his suffering was not meaningless, but that through his perseverance he would bring glory to God and life to those he served. In your times of suffering, may you also gain strength from God, and your church family, to persevere, trusting that He loves you and will use your suffering for His glory and to bring life to others.
A wise once man once warned me against comparing myself to others, because we so often compare what we know about ourselves with what we don’t know about someone else. Facebook has become notorious for this: we compare our screaming children, struggling marriage, and monotonous routines against the pictures of smiling children, a man’s effusive praise for his wife, and the latest Caribbean vacation photos, and we can’t decide whether to curl up in the fetal position or stab someone.
When it comes to the people of the Bible, we can fall into the same trap. We can assume that because someone is in the Bible, they must be spiritual giants, existing on some separate plane of existence from us. Take the Apostle Paul, for instance. This giant of the faith was responsible for planting churches all over the Middle East, and wrote half the New Testament. Surely the man must have enjoyed unbroken communion with Jesus and prayed in his sleep.
But when you read Paul’s letters closely, you see that he did not just glide through times of suffering like it was no big deal. For example, in 2 Corinthians 1:8-9, Paul writes “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” Apparently life was so hard for Paul that he was in despair and felt as if he was going to die. And in Philippians 1:21-26, cited above, Paul (writing from prison) tells the Philippian church that he would rather be dead than go on living. But for their sake, he concludes, he would continue to press on.
The truth is that life is hard, people are sinners, and we are not the only ones who go through hard times. Paul suffered to the point of wanting to die and be with Jesus, as many of us do. He needed God’s strength daily, as well as the reminder that his suffering was not meaningless, but that through his perseverance he would bring glory to God and life to those he served. In your times of suffering, may you also gain strength from God, and your church family, to persevere, trusting that He loves you and will use your suffering for His glory and to bring life to others.
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