Journey starts at 2 Corinthians 4. MSG version.
Verses 5 and 6 are talking about how it's all about Jesus. That we now have an understanding of God from looking at Jesus, and the understanding itself comes from Him.
Now comes verses 7-9.
"If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at.
We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do;
we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken."
Basically, Paul is saying that although we believers have this understanding of God, we humans are still fragile jars of clay. We still have our weaknesses, things happen to us, and we still fail here and there.
To give you a brief backdrop, I'm in a lot of confusion right now. Each time my focus is not on Jesus, getting confused is my current default state. Everything is unclear, most of the time I'm clueless of what I should do, and I don't have much control over anything. And not being in control is scary.
So given this situation, a sentence out of that passage struck me like a lightning of Grace. It was the latter part of verse 8.
"..we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do.."
In NLT, "We are perplexed, but not driven to despair."
In NLT, "We are perplexed, but not driven to despair."
Perplexed (adj.) Completely baffled; very puzzled.
Despair (n.) The complete loss or absence of hope.
In other words, we maybe completely puzzled, but never without hope.
Clueless, yet never hopeless.
Isn't that the most comforting assurance from God?
Sometimes it's scary how God speaks to us. You read something in the Bible and you just know that it's for you. I got shivers while reading the verse. He knows the troubles of our hearts. He knows what we're going through. He knows our fears, our worries and He just wants to speak His word right through it. We have a good Father, peeps!
It really is about Jesus. It's not devastatingly crucial if we don't know what we ought to do. What's most important is that if God knows what He's supposed to do. And boy does He!
We might not know how to figure life out, and it's okay. God is forever there, and that means that hope never dies. He knows what to do! Worry not :) I'm practically speaking to myself.
Again I'm reminded that I'm in good hands, and the reminder comes just in time.
Worry not, and be confused not, peeps. We'll do just fine :)
Good night!
