April 1st, 21

Given the option I'll rely on myself every time, given the choice, I'll hold on to control with a death grip until I reach the point of death. That self reliant grip is probably not unique to me. My guess is you know that grip well, well, God wants us to go beyond the death, grip, and other suffer liance and move us into something entirely new.  A life of dependence and trust in His presence. It appears in 2 Corinthians that God allows us to go through these near death experiences in order to break our grip and open our hands to his.

Paul says that he thought he would never live through the difficulties he was experiencing. He said it was so bad he expected to die. The purpose of these experiences was that he would learn to stop relying on himself and rather, to trust in God who raises the dead. In other words, we learn to rely on the power of the resurrection, the power of Christ's presence with us, in us to release our grip and hold on to him.

There's no escaping suffering in this world. And I wish that I could explain the meaning of suffering away. But I can't. But what I can do in the face of suffering, and its reality, is to look to the one who came and suffered with us and for us, that he might give us hope beyond our suffering, that we might even have joy in life, in the wake of our suffering. And God is still doing that even today. He's still suffering with us. That's the nature of love. To suffer with. The word compassion literally means to suffer with. God is the self giving, radically forgiving, co suffering one. That's the nature of His love. And when this love meets you, at the deepest level, at your deepest loss in your deepest shame in your deepest wounds, he begins to mend you and to heal you in ways that only God can. And not only you, but those around you who are suffering. That's what Paul described here in verse six. He said, For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. If you're suffering today, and you have a death grip on those circumstances.  Put up your hand to his he's with you right now. Experiences love today, his presence and let him begin to heal and mend and to make you new that's the prayer that I have for you today. May it be so

You are loved!