I am posting a little early today because I anticipate a very busy day, perhaps even stressful. Bless you all in your times of stress.
2
Corinthians 1:8-11
We’ve heard
the word stress so often in relation to the challenges we face that you might
assume it was always a term related to psychology. It’s not.
It’s an engineering term. It
refers to the forces that tend to strain or deform a body. Many of you will remember the 1967 collapse
of the Silver Bridge across the Ohio.
Investigators concluded, “The failure resulted from stress corrosion and
corrosion fatigue, two concepts which were not known in 1927 [when the bridge
was built]. It was also found that the flaw could not have been detected, even
by today's methods, unless the bridge was taken apart and tested.” Today, engineers attempt to anticipate stress
and the impact it will have on a structure.
No wonder,
we’ve seized on “stress” to describe some of our experiences in times of
challenge.
The
language Paul uses pictures a situation in which he felt “utterly and
unbearably weighed down—crushed.” In
particular, he suffered from a deep sense of despair. He says, “we despaired even of life.” The original word is interesting it means
“without any exit.” Paul seems to be
saying, “We saw no way out of our situation except death.” In other words, he
was stressed.
For
centuries Bible students have tried to unravel the mystery of what situation
Paul was taking about. Evidently the
Corinthians knew the details so Paul felt no need to repeat them. Apparently whatever took place occurred took
place while he was in “Asia” the province which is now known as Turkey; but
just where is not clear. Furthermore it
must have taken place sometime `after Paul had written First Corinthians;
consequently it was a fairly recent experience.
Had Paul
been the object of an assassination plot?
Had he
encountered more rioting such has that which occurred in Ephesus?
Had he been
seriously ill, with a doubtful prognosis for recovery?
We don’t
know. We do know it was one of the
darkest periods in his life.
Perhaps it’s
just as well we don’t know all the details of Paul’s experience. It makes it easier for us to see that Paul
might sympathize with us as we face times of stress. Haven’t we sometimes felt there was no way
out of our situation? Haven’t we sometimes
felt as if the weight of some problem or situation was about to crush us?
If so, we
need to consider what Paul discovered.
Even though he was an experienced Christian he learned something
important about facing stress. Like
Paul, we need to understand that the key to facing stress is found in our
faith.
If You Want to Face Stress Successfully Look Outside Yourself.
The first
thing Paul discovered was that he had no hope of escape if he tried to fight
the battle on his own. Had Paul lived in
the 21st century there would have been those who counseled him to
“look inside” for the strength he needed.
In the midst of the battle Paul had looked and discovered the arsenal
was empty. He had no strength or
personal resources which could get him through that tough time.
But,
looking back, he realized the very experience had taught him a valuable
lesson. He told the Corinthians that the
experience was designed to “keep us from trusting and depending on ourselves
instead of on God.”
Paul was a
brilliant man. He would be considered a
great scholar. Yet, his scholarship was
insufficient to get him out of the situation which brought him to death’s
door. His friends couldn’t get him
out. In fact, if his friends got too
close, they would be in trouble too. The
use of the plural “we” suggest Timothy was in the same situation.
His only recourse
was to trust God, not himself, in this situation. French Arrington explains the process.
Whatever the exact nature of the peril, the
result was despair. He was like a ship
that is overcrowded with cargo and is gradually sinking. His burden was too great. His condition, so he thought, was fatal. Convinced “the sentence of death” had been
passed upon him, he gave up all hope of living.
He lost confidence in anything he could do. Death knocked on his door, but his suffering
was not futile. What happened threw him
back on God and his mercy. The adversity
and deliverance taught him not to rely on himself but on God who raises the
dead.
God rescued Paul in a dangerous
situation. He learned the hard way the
vanity of self-confidence and the importance of confidence in God. Like most of us he did not know what the
future held, but he knew the One who holds the future.
Sadly, some
people who come to the conclusion that all doors leading to relief from their
pain and stress are firmly locked do give up.
They may commit suicide. They may
turn to drugs or alcohol. They may
embrace some form of escapist religion, one which denies the reality of their
situation. None of this will help.
Fortunately,
Paul gives us a further clue.
If You Want to Face Stress Successfully Nurture a
Well-Grounded Faith
The New
Testament teaching on faith tells us that faith has both an objective element
and a subjective element. At the same
time, it has a past, present, and future dimension.
The
objective element of the faith through which Paul faced his stressful time
focused on the great act of God in raising Jesus from the dead. Paul recalls this act when he refers to the
God in whom he trusts as “the God who raises the dead.”
In his earlier epistle to the Corinthians he
had insisted that the resurrection of Christ was foundational to
Christianity. Eliminate the resurrection
and the Faith will crumble. Yet, Paul
was absolutely convinced of the reality of Christ’s Resurrection. That reality was at the heart of his preaching:
the resurrection was part of almost every sermon he is reported to have
preached. But the interesting—and very
human—fact is, in the midst of his Asian crisis Paul seems to have momentarily
forgot what he’d been preaching for years.
But
suddenly it struck him. “I could die in
this situation,” he may have said to himself, “yet my God is the God who has
beaten death!” That was the turning
point. Paul’s subjective response to the
objective element of the Faith was trust.
In the midst of his tough situation he could rely on God to do what was
best for him, to bring him out or bring him home. In view of the Resurrection, everything was
in perspective. That’s why one early Christian
told the persecutors, “You can kill us but you can’t really harm us.”
As a
result, Paul’s faith was rejuvenated.
Strangely, and I don’t think I’m being too bold to say this, his faith
after the crisis was stronger than it was before. Certainly, it had that three-dimensional
quality I spoke of earlier.
·
Well-grounded faith has a past dimension. Paul could look back and see those times when
God had been there to rescue him. That
record of God’s past actions established a precedent for trusting God whatever
might come his way.
·
Well-grounded faith has a present dimension. God “will still rescue and save us,” Paul
says. That assurance must have informed
his ministry, giving him a new boldness to venture into new territory and to
proclaim his message with even greater assurance.
·
Well-grounded faith has a future dimension. The Amplified Bible stresses element of hope
for the future found in this statement.
It renders the latter part of verse 10:
“…in and on Him we have set our hope (our joyful and confident
expectation) that He will again deliver us from danger and destruction and draw
us to Himself.”
Now, Paul’s faith was mature enough that he
would not claim that God’s “rescue” would always take the form he expected or
that such a divine intervention would always be recognized as such by the
watching world. But even so God would be
behind the rescue. R. C. H. Lenski
imagines Paul and his co-worker Timothy exuberant over God’s intervention on
their behalf. He says, “Their wonderful
deliverance, which is still so vivid in their minds, makes them see God’s
deliverance in the days to come…. After
such a supreme deliverance will God ever fail them? God, the Deliverer, is his name. When he then does let us die, when his work
with us on earth is completed, he removes us with a final deliverance, the most
blessed of all.”
As a
consequence, Paul’s attitude toward death was markedly different than that of
many of his contemporaries. Rather than
see death as the end, he is able to see it as a beginning.
Our
Christian brothers and sisters of an earlier age seem to have understood this
better than we do. As Adoniram Judson,
the first Baptist missionary from America, lay on his death bed he said:
“I am not tired of my work, neither am I tired of the world; yet when Christ calls me home, I shall go
with the gladness of a boy bounding away from his school. Perhaps I feel something like the young bride
when she contemplates resigning the pleasant association of her childhood for a
dearer home—though only a little like her, for there is no doubt resting on my
future.”
Paul’s hope
had grown, just as our hope grows, by his knowledge of the Scripture and by his
experience of God’s actions on his behalf.
Those experiences out of his past gave him a well-grounded faith for the
present and the future.
For some,
Paul has said all that needed to be said:
Don’t trust yourself, trust God.
Yet, Paul
didn’t leave it there. He added one more
comment which merits our attention.
If You Want to Face Stress Successfully, Find a
Personal Support System
Verse 11 is
challenging. Even Southern Baptist New
Testament scholar A. T. Robertson says, “It is indeed a difficult sentence to
understand.”
Part of the
difficulty lies with the fact that Paul is dealing with the mystery of
prayer. Like many of you I have some
questions about prayer. Just how are we
to pray in certain situations? Just what
do some of the promises regarding prayer mean?
This is not the time to sort through them but I do want to admit I don’t
have all the answers. Still, I can say a
few things about this verse with a degree of certainty.
To begin with, I agree with Lenski that it
cannot mean, as some have suggested, that somehow God is more likely to help us
out of a tough spot the more people pray for us. That doesn’t present a very appealing picture
of God; it makes God seem selfish and it makes our situation precarious since
escape depends on the faithfulness of others to pray.
I believe
Paul is commending the Corinthians for being part of his support system. This may not be the complete meaning of the
verse but I think Paul, at least, is letting his readers know that their
support, even at a distance, is invaluable.
In fact, their support is so valuable that he considers them to be
laboring with him through their prayers.
Remember,
Paul has just declared his utter dependence upon God. At the same time, this statement seems to
indicate that he is not indifferent to the support of his fellow
believers. While Paul is by no means
suggesting that God would not have rescued him had the Corinthians not prayed,
he is saying that, because of their prayers, the Corinthians have helped to
bring glory to God for the divine rescue.
For that they can be thankful.
This word
of recognition implies that strong faith in God does not preclude a role for
human support as we face stress. We are
not to be “lone ranger” Christians.
Believers are interdependent, we need each other and, in this situation,
Paul indicates that the reliance of believers upon one another extends beyond
any local congregation.
Here Paul
specifically mentions prayer as a way to help those facing stressful
situations. By no means should we
minimize the prayers of our fellow-Christians when we are facing a tough
time. In his letters Paul frequently
asks his readers to pray for him. What’s
especially remarkable here is that he is thanking the Corinthians for their
prayers—the Corinthians, a more messed-up band of Christians would have been
hard to find! Yet, Paul knew the God of
grace had heard their prayers on his behalf.
Elsewhere
Paul will mention other ways we can show support to those facing stressful
situations. These may include sharing a
word about God’s activity in your own life, providing practical help, giving a
word of encouragement, or just being a friend.
The point
is, when you face stress don’t isolate yourself. Don’t think that faith demands you go it
alone. God has placed us in a community
of believers for a reason. His goal for
that community is that it be a place where encouragement is the watchword of
the day.
Conclusion
Few of us
face the stressful situations Paul did; we don’t face angry mobs determined to
stop us at any cost. Some of us do face
stressful health issues, family problems, or business crises. All of us face stress.
Facing
stress successfully involves a variety of skills. Most of them can be learned from books and
articles. But here are some perspectives
you won’t find just anywhere.
There’s the
call to have a deep reliance upon God—a trust that leaves the present and the
future in his hands.
There’s is
a call to be open with others about our needs—to allow them to place a shoulder
under the crushing weight to help us through the tough time.
The key to
facing stressful situations is our faith.
This is a faith that teaches us to trust God for the present and the
future, a faith which teaches us to
rejoice in the support we have from community of faith, a community made up of
real people who have faced real stress and come away with real testimonies
of God’s grace.
