By Pastor Bob DeKlavon
For the last two days, I have focused on a passage of scripture I first saw when I was 14.
My father had died, and we received numerous cards from a variety of people.
One of those cards included 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 just as an inclusion for consideration.
I DID read the verses at the time, but they didn’t mean very much then.
Who knew the impact those verses would have on my life over the next 50 years?
Over the last two days, I have written the following based on those verses:
ONE--“Comforted to offer comfort”
God provides strength and grace in our afflictions so we, in turn can offer the same to others.
TWO--“Why do we sometimes get afflicted with so much?”
In Paul’s afflictions, he shares that he learned the purpose for being burdened so excessively:
that he would not trust in himself but he would trust in God.
At the very end of what is written—Paul writes the following as given in the Message paraphrase:
And he did it, rescued us from certain doom. And he’ll do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need rescuing. You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation—I don’t want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God’s deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.
Focus on the bold print above.
The believers knew of Paul’s struggles and they turned to prayer in order to a part of the solution.
Then, when God DID answer—they could lift their hearts in praise for what God had done.
Several times in his letters, Paul mentions his great need for prayer.
Consider:
Romans 15:30-- Dear brothers and sisters, I urge you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to join in my struggle by praying to God for me. Do this because of your love for me, given to you by the Holy Spirit.
Philippians 1:19: For I know that as you pray for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, this will lead to my deliverance.
Paul asks for prayer to the churches of the Colossians and the Thessalonians and the Ephesians.
He writes a somewhat awkward letter to his spiritual child, Philemon, and in v. 22 he asks for prayer.
I will be quite honest--I don’t understand HOW prayer works, what I know is that IT works.
God’s children are called to prayer—and, in so doing, we are enabled to support and help one another.
In 2 Corinthians 1:11—Paul says: “you also joining in helping us through your prayers.”
The words “helping us’ are from one Greek word comprised of the following 3 words:
“With…under…work”
It is a picture of laborers working with others under the burdens of whatever load they are carrying.
We have been given the privilege of joining with others in prayer in order to praise the Lord together.