2 Corinthians 1:8-9 Overwhelmed
Food for Thought
An all-creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living. True Christian living requires us to live according to Kingdom standards which bring Heaven to earth

By Marni Montanez

2 Corinthians 1:8-9 New Living Translation

8. We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it.

9. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.

These men plunged into the depth of despair,  fading strength and the inability to see what was ahead,  much like most of us have experienced at some point in our lifetime. In these times of trial and pressure, we get to the very edge and can’t go on any longer. Hope is distant and our soul becomes desperate.  Then as strength drains from our soul and our body, we can no longer hold up in the pain or stress and just want it to stop.   This is when we feel like dying or that we are dying and in one sense we are dying; dying to ourselves.

Romans 6:5-7 (NLT)  

5. Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was.

6. We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.

7. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.

Finally we are drained of any human strength and find that we have reached our bottom. This is when we can no longer resist what God is doing in our lives, whether we do this knowingly or unknowingly.    

These followers of Christ met with opposition that was so ruthless and unforgiving that it pounded against their soul much like powerful waves pound against the huge boulders that line the shore.   Each day seemed like a hard wind of trouble that they met with determination. But eventually, when these troubles would not let up, it began to take its toll on their bodies and emotions and little by little they lost their stamina in the constant current that raged against them.   

When we go through these times, there seems to be no escape from the feelings of turmoil that can feel physical as well as emotional.   It seems that our cries out to God are in vain and met with deafening silence. We cannot see where we’ve been or where we’re going; we are trapped under a shadow cast over our mind. There is no instant answer in these moments.   

We must do what these men of God did; we must realize that putting our trust in ourselves is disastrous.   We must put our trust in God or we will lose all hope. God can and will deliver us from this difficult time.

Psalm 34:19 International Standard Version  

A righteous person will have many troubles, 
but the Lord will deliver him from them all.

God has not and will not abandon us and if we go by our feelings we will not believe this. We have to believe that God has not abandoned us;  In God we will find our ability to stand up again and continue on.   In the moments of deepest despair, put up your hands and submit to God.  Express your trust for Him alone and confess your need to lean upon Him. The men who wrote their story went on to do more for the glory of God and we will too.

God bless

Marni

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The purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not Christian.