Sometimes the stress of family life, work, and ministry can cause us to feel like the walls are closing in. We don’t have to be experiencing extreme trauma to be discouraged. What do we do when problems seem overwhelming? How did the apostle Paul handle stress?
2 Corinthians 1:8-9
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.
When Paul lived in fear for his life, he took some time getting his mind right so he could trust God in impossible situations. First, he remembered the deeds of his Lord in the past. He remembered when Jesus was raised from the dead. Then he remembered how God had rescued him in the past. He took time to reflect. His hope was in the Lord, not in himself.
Why do we sometimes try to deal with our problems in our own strength? 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, but other times he calms us during the storm. This often includes other people.
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 the spiritual battle.
What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through these scriptures?