Follow the 2013 Faithful Conference for Pastors and Leaders with us!View replays and read post summaries here on the blog. In this article, see the message “The Suffering of the Leader?Is there in our suffering (2 Co 1. 8-11)?, by Dave Harvey:
The sick boss
Text: 2 Cor 1: 8-11
This passage is truly astonishing in Escrituras. Es surprising because it refers to one of the most difficult moments in Paul’s life, when he came face to face with his weakness. Christian mystics often talk about the “dark night of the soul,” but it was much worse. It’s one thing to be weak, it’s another to feel a weight beyond your strength. It’s one thing to get discouraged, another to despair of life itself. It’s one thing to be on a dark night, it’s another to be sentenced to death. Has life offended you like this? We will observe Paul’s suffering in four acts.
This is how Paul presents his experience in Asia, there was an experience of great anguish, it may be the riots in Acts 19, the fight against the beasts evoked in 1St 15th, sickness or betrayal, this affliction created a term so great that it went beyond his ability to endure, to the point that it despaired of his own life. Have you ever felt, like Paul, that you were sentenced to death, as if you were bound, arrested, and cornered?It is interesting to know that being a believer does not free us from this kind of suffering. You can serve the Lord and always feel desperate, moved, crushed. You may be surprised by Paul’s pure honesty, but it brings us closer to his suffering. God wants to meet you, there, wherever you are, in the midst of suffering.
God wants to fill our pain with a purpose. Paul’s words bring the idea of something that leads us to a certain outcome, there is someone who is the author of this drama: God, the idea of the text is that we should not trust one another, but in the one who raises us from the Lord is very concerned about what we trust. God awakens the worst moments of our lives to build trust in us. We say, “God, help me trust you!” and he replies, “All right, get ready for trouble. “God doesn’t just trust us, he gets us in trouble. God’s best works in our lives occur when we are forced to trust Him.
Paul was sure in the midst of suffering because God resurrects the dead. “I thought he was on the verge of death, but it doesn’t matter, because he resurrects the dead. “. You look at your life and ministry and see little progress, few changes and little life. You look at your children and you don’t see the zeal for God, you don’t see life. Wherever you look, there is only death Follow the one who resurrects the dead. We follow a savior who resurfaced. His affliction is not the last chapter: God resurrects the dead. Whatever the time of our lives, God likes to resurrect dead things.
Paul expresses his faith and trust in God. Trust God for your answer, but now ask for prayer. You see, your confidence that God will deliver you does not diminish your desire to pray to God. Their faith and hope do not limit prayer, but they inspire prayer. There are some paradoxes in this passage: “I am in the faith, but I need help; I am in faith, but do I need prayer? We need to look beyond ourselves and to our community for prayers. It’s hard because we celebrate self-confidence. In most cultures around the world, it is a sign of success. We celebrate and encourage personalities who do everything in their own power. But if we trust each other, we will only achieve what we can deliver. However, if we trust God, we get what he can offer us. Ask the men in your church to pray for you so that you can achieve what only God can give. God doesn’t want you to suffer alone. Please don’t suffer alone. How often do you look for a brother or sister in Christ to talk about your afflictions?
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