“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. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-11)
Very few could ever relate to or understand how much hardship and suffering the apostle Paul went through for the gospel. Hs life was filled with trouble – day in and day out – it probably felt never-ending. It was the kind of life Jesus had appointed him to when he was called on that Damascus road, under the hot, Arabian sun. Jesus said very plainly to Ananias, who baptized Paul, “Go! This man [Paul] is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:15-16). Jesus had decided that Paul’s life would be a testimony of suffering for the gospel. That had to have been a challenging calling to accept. Could you imagine that – being told that the purpose of your life will be to suffer while having an incredible impact on the world for the gospel? Today, do you believe you would be able to accept that calling? A calling from God to suffer… for his glory, not yours! This was the life Paul was called to, and it was the life he lived. It would be a life that could only be lived in humility and closely walked with the Lord.
In his letters, Paul writes about his sufferings, despair, anxieties, concerns, pressures, ailments, loneliness, pain and challenges he lives with to preach the gospel. In this letter to the Corinth church, Paul mentions the troubles he experienced in the province of Asia. The sufferings he’s referring to in Asia are things such as being stoned for preaching the gospel; being shipwrecked at sea; being whipped and beaten for preaching in Jesus’ name; having to fight off wild beasts for survival; a mob attacking him for his life and physical sickness. How was your week? Paul definitely suffered! And he definitely suffered more than you and I typically suffer on a given week or month of our own life. The remarkable part of Paul’s heart is that although he writes about these hardships, we never see him complaining about his life nor losing faith in God’s power to provide for and rescue him! He is always trusting, always persevering, always faithful… never giving up on God! Paul made a decision to never let his circumstances dictate his loyalty to Christ. Paul shares his heart with the Ephesian elders upon his departure from them and says, “I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace” (Acts 20:24). He was concerned with one and only thing: finish the race, now matter how hard it gets, he will die faithful! Do you and I have that same conviction? Because we will all go through tough challenges, and we will be stretched, and our faith will be tested… but we must decide now, beforehand, before the sufferings come, that we will remain true and never turn away from righteously living out our calling and being faithful to the end! Every disciple of Jesus Christ vocally declares the same pledge to follow Jesus from the very beginning, “Jesus is Lord!” We declared that no matter what happens, we will follow our Lord and Savior, Jesus, in everything! We never said, “Jesus is Lord… when it is convenient and easy.” We never put a condition on when he is Lord, because he is Lord in the good times and the bad. Ask yourself, was Jesus truly Lord of your life this past week? Has Jesus been Lord of your life during the sufferings? If you have compromised in your loyalty to remain faithful in any area of your life, it is time to repent, pick up your cross, and follow closely to Jesus; for he is our Master.
In his second letter to the Corinth church, Paul shares with them what the sufferings of Asia taught him – to rely on God when he’s under pressure! He tells them that he was under so much pressure, it was way beyond HIS ABILITY to endure… exactly! God wanted to push Paul to the point of suffering to where he could no longer rely on his understanding, his strength, his wisdom, or his stamina, but it forced him to turn to God and rely on him instead! Paul’s abilities weren’t good enough to get him through the hardships faithful. He needed more. He needed more power. He needed the peace of God. He needed to need God. God had to let Paul SEE his need for him! God tells us we need him and we need to rely on him, but it is up to us to be convinced of the fact. God will put us under pressure so we can be convinced our own abilities are not good enough to deliver us. The sufferings and pressure left him with no choice but to rely on his God… who raises the dead!!! I don’t know about you, but when I need to rely upon someone, I want to rely upon the one who can raise the dead… in other words, someone who does the impossible! God can always deliver far better than we can deliver ourselves.
Paul describes the hardships in Asia as “pressure.” This is a beautiful metaphor. Too often we run from pressure and convince ourselves pressure is bad; pressure needs to be escaped from, pressure needs to be avoided, pressure will hurt you… Nothing is further from the truth!! Pressure is actually really good! Take diamonds for example: diamonds are considered the most precious gems in all of the world. Genuine diamonds are of incredible value, and people are willing to go through great lengths in obtaining them; they are eagerly sought and desired. Diamonds are considered “precious” because of the remarkable process it requires for one to be naturally created. The natural process is amazing. Diamonds are created by carbon dioxide being put 100 miles under the earth’s surface; over 725,000 pounds per square inch of pressure applied; over 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit of heat; and 1 to 3 billions years to complete the process. The key elements in creating a diamond are heat and pressure. As disciples, we are like diamonds being formed by God through hardships. Our faith starts out like a lump of carbon, much like coal, and with the application of heat and pressure and a lot of time, we come out beautiful diamonds! This is the same process we must undergo in order to make our faith beautiful. If we resist the pressure, our faith will be a lump of coal… and people don’t pay millions of dollars for a lump of coal.
Pressure is a good thing because it forces a change of direction. If you were to take a marble ball and put it on a table, and then take a flat frying pan and press it on the ball with a lot of pressure, it will eventually force the ball to move in a certain direction. That’s what pressure does: it forces a change of direction. In our life, when we go through hardship, we are being forced to go in one of two directions: towards God or away from God. But one thing is for certain, you definitely cannot stay in the same place! If you try to, the pressure becomes overwhelming and it kills you. Whatever hardship describes your life right now, whether it be fighting wild beasts and being stoned, or if it is financial strain and relationship conflict, it is pressure. God is applying pressure to your life like he did Paul, to teach us to stop relying upon ourselves, and to rely on him more! It is forcing us to change directions, and we have to choose to go towards God in the hardship, or distance ourselves from God. Distancing ourselves from God looks like missing meetings of the body, not giving contribution consistently, not reading our Bibles, not praying or praying less, and distancing ourselves from other disciples in our life. Instead of growing closer to God, we can typically find something else to give us comfort and relieve the pressure, usually something indicative of our past and sinful behavior. Those things could be impurity, selfishness, drugs, alcohol abuse, physical family or even idolatry of our kids. We must not go to these things when under pressure, but draw closer to God. We need to read more of the Bible, pray longer, seek more discipling, be more open with our sin and temptations, spend more time in genuine fellowship. Ultimately, God is teaching us to rely on him, and not on our own abilities. The best part about it is what Paul writes to Corinth, he says that God has delivered them and will continue to deliver them! How awesome is that? God will always deliver us through our sufferings if we rely on him! Ask yourself, how have you been handling pressure? What direction are you heading towards right now? Are you allowing God to use heat and pressure in your life to become a beautiful diamond? Will you try to escape the pressure of sufferings, or will you embrace the pressure of sufferings to live faithful to your Lord and Savior? The decision is yours. Coal or diamond… they are both made of carbon, but look different and have drastically different value.
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