Christ + Nothing = Everything

“For when we came into Macedonia, we had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn – conflicts on the outside, fears within.  But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us.” 

– 2 Corinthians 7:5-6b

A couple of days ago I was having a really rough day.   It seemed like everything was just falling apart and whatever I did, just made it worse. Got to love when days like that come rolling around, but more importantly you’ve got to love how God is always faithful to give us the strength and encouragement to get through them.  I woke up the next morning with the song “Give Me Faith” by Elevation Worship in my head and opened my Bible to 2 Corinthians 7:5-6. 

I read that verse and instantly felt the Lord speaking to me.  No rest, harassment, conflict and fear… Yep, sounds about right. I don’t know about you, but there tends to always be a season in my life where these four things show up.  Times where I feel like I am stuck on a treadmill, running, but not going anywhere and not able to jump off.  Times where every turn or movement I make returns with a strong backlash.  Times when it seems like there is no peace, instead there is only tension.  Times when you hate yourself because you are scared, scared of the unknown or even better when you don’t even know where the fear is coming from.  It can all seem a little overwhelming at times.   Yet, then we look at the second part of these verses, and those two magic words “But God.”

All of this can be happening, but God.  No matter what it is, those two words cancel it all out, which makes the math easy.  All we have to do is turn our eyes on Him and He is faithful to bring us through and give us peace.  It makes me think of Paul at the end of acts.  Throughout chapters 27 and 28 Paul is in a huge storm and then shipwrecked.  During the storm, the men are terrified, and when Paul speaks to them he says, “Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul’ (Acts 27:23-24b).  The angel then continues to remind Paul that God has a plan for him in Rome and that his time is not yet over, so to take courage because God is faithful to His word, but that the ship would be shipwrecked.  You would think that would be enough excitement for Paul, but there was still more to come.

After being shipwrecked and swimming for his life, Paul gets bit by a viper while collecting fire wood.  It says in chapter 28, verse 3, “a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand.”   This extremely poisonous viper doesn’t just bite Paul and then let go, no he latches on, never intending to let go.  How much is that like Satan?  Satan doesn’t just throw an attack at us for a couple seconds and then ease up and go away.  No, he does everything he can to try and get as much venom into our blood stream as possible and holds on with strength.  But, what does Paul do?  In verse 5 it says, “But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.” Paul doesn’t let it move him, he shakes it off, kills it in the fire (he kills it, it is no more) and then he suffers no ill effect.  No ill effect from a vipers bite?  That is impossible… But God.

There are storms, storms that cause us to fear for our lives, but we see that in that storm Paul was not alone.  Paul was comforted and encouraged by the words of an angel of the Lord, this angel was standing by him through the storm.  Yes, they lost their cargo, their supplies, and their ship, but not one life on the ship was lost.  We can lose all that we have here on earth, but we know that we cannot lose our life in Christ.  Finally we can get bit by the viper of life, and that bite can come in many different forms (bitterness, fear, anger, depression, etc.), but what matters is that we shake it off, kill it in the fire and let God be the restorer of life, for then we will suffer no harm.  All we have to do is look to Him and He “who comforts the downcast, [will] comfort us.”