Striving is simply fighting with the urge to do or not doing something. The definition of striving is to contend, to fight for or against something. We all strive with God over things we want for ourselves, or others. We try to reason with God as to why He should be seeing or doing things the way we want them to be. In 2nd Corinthians 12:7-10, Paul, then known as Saul, was striving with Jesus. There are many examples in scripture, but first lets look at this one. If we look at the situations we face, we are supposed to to strive for Good Things, such as finding the narrow way, as in Luke 13:24, to get to Heaven through belief in Jesus Christ as our savior. We too often overlook the narrow way, for the easier to find wide path, which leads to destruction. This is why I believe that God left the fabled 'thorn in the flesh' of Paul's to remind him that he needed to continually call on God for help to stay on the narrow path.
In verse 7 we see Paul is telling us that he was given this thorn to not only keep him from becoming proud in his own abilities, but also to remind him that he needed God to help him avoid the traps of satan, trying to thwart him in his ministry to the gentiles. Many possible things have been discussed as being the possible 'thorn' he had trouble with, yet we are never told exactly what the thorn is. It is not really important what the thorn is, but what it was for.
Starting in verse 8 we see Paul 'beseeching' the Lord three times to remove this thorn. Paul doesn't just pray to be delivered three separate days, he spends three different 'seasons' in prayer to the Lord. Paul spends a good bit of effort on fighting this 'thorn' to no avail. Paul did great ministries and healing for the Lord, but when it came to his own infirmity, it appears he could do nothing. Paul received the answer to his prayer NO. Jesus Himself received the same answer to His request in Matthew 26:44, when He prayed for God to remove the cup from Him that He was to drink from. Jesus had strived in so fervent a manner, that He even began to sweat blood. Now Paul had not gotten that fervent in as short a period of time, yet he had been just as fervent three different times in his prayers. We are to bring anything we desire to the Lord just as fervently and believe that the Lord can help if it's in His will to do so.
We see further in verse 9 that Paul received an answer to his prayers, perhaps he had received this answer before praying the third time, and been unsatisfied with the answer. We do not really know. All we really know is that Paul received an answer. God had told Paul not to focus on the infirmity, yet let it be a witness of Paul's being able to continue on in the ministry despite the 'thorn'. God wants sometimes to use our infirmities to be a witness of His strength in us to overcome through the Lord's power.
Verse 10 says as much. We should glory in our infirmities and not in our successes. We should take pride not in our abilities, but in God's ability to overcome our weaknesses and use us despite them. So we need to strive to follow whereever God leads us not go where we want to go. Our desire should be to be in God's will no matter where it may lead us.
Do you feel as though life has become too mundane? Not exciting, no major trials you have faced recently? Then maybe you should ask God to help you to get in God's will so he can display the strength needed to make it through. If you have recently been through some major trials, thank God for His attempt to teach you. As we face hardships we learn from them that God can overcome, and so can we if we rest firmly in Him.
Whatever time we may have felt we lost in falling away from God, He can restore to us. In John 6:16-21 the disciples went across the sea of Galilee in a small ship at the Lord Jesus' request. When they were part way across a storm came up and threatened to sink their ship. After they had struggled and strived with the storm for some time, they saw someone coming, walking on the water. At first they thought it might be a ghost, Then they recognized Jesus and after He climbed in their boat, He called for the storm to be still. The scriptures say that after Jesus calmed the storm, they were 'immediately' where they were headed. If we willing accept God's will in our lives, we will find ourselves put immediately in God's plan right where He wants us. All we need do is surrender our all to Him and not hold anything back.
We won't be where we want immediately, but where God wants us immediately. Later on in that same chapter of John, we see where the people who he had just fed were looking for Jesus, and saw though no other boats were missing, He was gone. Thinking maybe the disciples came back and got Jesus, they headed out to the other side of the lake to find Jesus. When they found Jesus, they asked Him, knowing He had not left on a boat, how had He gotten across. Jesus replied, " You seek me, not because you think it a miracle I am here, but because you filled your stomaches by the food I gave you". Just like them so many of us work hard in this life for the things of this world, all of which we must leave behind when we go. We are focused on what we receive, not on how we got it or who we got it from. The things of this world become more important to us than the person who made them for us.
With these and other passages in the Bible we see that it is our natural nature to strive with the things of God. We are of corrupted seed and this world that we live in is also corrupted due to the original sin of Adam. Our Church in America today is more than ever needed to influence societal thought toward the things of God. The morals embodied in the Ten Commandments, and to hold us back from going further toward the evil abominations that are spelled out in the Bible. The world wants to ignore what God has said, and we need to warn them that all they want is to be fed as the crowd was. They don't really want to hear the message that comes with it. There is no threat from us, just a promise from God Himself.
No comments:
Post a Comment