Tuesday

Won't Get Me Down By Betsy Barnes

I was going to blog on something completely different tonight. Since I didn't have internet at the house until around 5pm today I've spent the last couple of days typing out a post on patience. (Impatient for internet and because I need to write, even though I didn't have the blog for an outlet. I had to write something somewhere!) It'll be on here eventually... but my heart isn't in it right now.

A better topic for my current mood is found in 2 Corinthians. It's actually found all over the Bible, but I love some of the verses in 2 Corinthians 4:1-18. I'll recap the chapter for you so we can get to those favorite verses-although I encourage everyone to read it.

Paul wrote to the church at Corinth and in chapter 4 he addressed certain aspects of ministry. We (Christians) have been given mercy and we have had the light of God shined on us. The message that we have for others is God's message. It is not our own to use for our glory. Only for His glory. And not everyone will understand this message because the 'god of this world' has blinded them so that the light of the gospel cannot shine down on them.

Then we get to verses 8-10. It's beautifully written and I'll not spoil it with a recap:

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

I was discouraged tonight by something trite. When I turned to the Bible for some verses on discouragement this is what I found. How senseless and self-absorbed am I to allow so small of a thing to get me down! Here is Paul, a man who was physically persecuted for spreading God's message, writing to a church who also faced persecution, proclaiming that though we are troubled, and perplexed, and persecuted, and cast down we can never be distressed, despaired, forsaken, or destroyed.

While Christians in America do not face what these early Christians faced, these verses can still be used as a light for our world-weary souls. We were promised a difficult road. But we were also promised a friend to hold us tight, guide our paths and console our broken spirits. He has consoled mine tonight.

And I believe that makes joy number 77! He loves me, oh how he loves me! -- Betsy

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