Living in gratitude even with hardships!

 

WED EP Reflection 072220 (Zeph. 3:16; 2 Cor. 1:3-7)

The Prophet Zephaniah talks about the promises of God of how it would look like, when Israel would have returned from captivity. A journey from the worse troubles to real comforts of their home. God promised them that He would save them. In the meantime, their sufferings continue in captivity. This verse 16 spoke to me particularly because perhaps, it seems to be deep: “Do not let your hands grow weak.” Somehow, I feel like God is saying to them not to despair, and fall into a lethargic moment of thinking: “I am going to die now anyway, why should I even bother working?” Take heart, the Lord will show you His strength to save. Even if the fog is so dense that we can’t see 200 feet away, believe, and have faith that God is at work and that He will redeem the situation that seems impossible to change. That was the message. Isn’t it great? Yes, the real challenge is to keep this message to heart, especially when our circumstances go from worse to worse. This seems to be the same situation that Paul is telling Corinthians.

Paul began with thanksgiving to God! In all things, give thanks to God, glorify God! In the OT, He is the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob which shows the covenant relationship and their seed. In the NT, He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which shows this relationship with the mediator, Jesus and the new covenant with us, the spiritual seed. Paul is giving glory to God in all circumstances. This is hard for us, considering the horrors of evils that befall on us. The Apostle is saying that the more troublesome their circumstances got, the more grace, peace and comfort they felt in their souls. This is weird, because normally we feel down and disengaged both in our body and soul when things are not going well. Paul is suggesting that being in Christ, brings him hope in upbeat measure despite the downers of this world.

Now how come that is not always our experience? I don’t know. Could it be that our culture and modern ways of thinking has found ways to get rid of suffering in effective ways? We are accustomed to get rid of suffering or to avoid it at all costs. I am guilty as charged! I don’t want to go through it. I don’t know anyone who would choose to go through it. We avoid it.

The truth is that sometimes, we can’t avoid it. When we can’t avoid suffering, we become miserable. Paul is suggesting that suffering could be an ally to us rather than being an enemy. Going through suffering was seen as an extension of the sufferings of Christ [I assume that their troubles were closely related to the persecution of Christians.] I must admit that my recent experience of a toothache woke me up to my apparent low tolerance of suffering, especially when we know that there is an available relief. We crave for it. I am sure Paul would have used the medicine too, but in this case, he is encouraging Corinthians in their troubles so they can keep their focus on God at all times.

Paul tells them about his own troubles, how intense they were to the degree that one would even despair of life. That must have been really hard, and yet Paul is comforting Corinthians also to bear their sufferings courageously with the comfort of Christ’s peace in our inner lives. In the same way, that Israelites had to keep that promise of deliverance alive in their heart, we should also protect our inner lives with the hope and peace that Christ gives. 2 Cor 4: 16 says: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day”.

Don’t lose heart/ Don’t despair! However hard, it has been, please let God renew your inner self every-day!