Rely

DEVOTION

2 CORINTHIANS

RELY

2 Cor 1:8-11

8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

NIV

Sometimes hardships and trouble come our way just so we can remember that we need to rely or trust in God for every aspect of our life. That is the question we should be asking of ourselves every day. Do we actually rely on God for every area of our life? Sometimes it seems that there is so much of our life that we can do all by ourselves, after all look at all those people who are doing so well and they don’t even know God. Why can’t we just live in the same way they do, relying completely on their own abilities? Yet when those people encounter some sort of peril they have no one to rely on, but we often hear so many in those times ask why God allowed that disaster to happen, so many innocent lives were lost. But were they declared innocent by God? That is one thing we can rely on, is that we have been declared innocent by God, yet even in times of peril, we can rely on him. If we die in the peril we can rely on him to resurrect us into his presence. If we live through the peril than we, having relied on him, can give praise and honor and glory to his name. We can also be sure that many will give thanks to God for our enduring and making it through some sort of hardship, or perilous situation. Even though Paul says that he was so despondent that he wished he was thinking he would die in that perilous situation, we really need not worry for God is at our side. Whether we live or die, God will see us though. But the point here is that we should be relying on him for everything in our life, that way if or when hardship comes we will have been in practice of relying on him. It might be more difficult to rely on him if we have been relying on ourselves all along in the good times.