Sometimes the stress of work can cause us to feel like the walls are closing in on us. What do you do when problems at work seem overwhelming? Are we doomed to gritting our teeth and pretending to smile? How did the apostle Paul handle this stress when he was on his missionary journeys?
2 Corinthians 1:8-11
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. 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.
When Paul lived in fear for his life, he took some time getting his mind right so he could trust God in an impossible situation. First, he remembered the deeds of his Lord. He remembered when Jesus was raised from the dead. Then he remembered how God had rescued him in the past. His hope was in the Lord, not in himself. Paul’s hope wasn’t built on what he could do to change his situation. He put his trust in God to change him inwardly, and emotionally, even if his own situation didn’t change at all. Sometimes God calms the storm that we are in, but other times he calms us in the midst of the storm.
Matthew 18:20
“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Paul didn’t try to deal with the pressures alone, he turned to God in prayer with other believers. When we come together to pray for each other, we enter holy ground. This unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace that we experience in prayer reminds us that we are not alone in this great spiritual battle. Our fellow spiritual soldiers will be used by our Lord to encourage us to trust in God’s world. Do you have Christian friends that you can be real with and pray together?
What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through these scriptures?
