“For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again” – 2 Corinthians 1:8-10.

THERE ARE THOSE who talk glibly of the sufferings in the Christian life while there are those who actually encounter them. It is true that we are called to victory through Jesus Christ, but we tend to forget that we are also called to suffer for His name’s sake. Get away from it as much as we could, but through many difficulties lies the path to our eternal rest – a ceasing from conflict with sin, inward corruptions, the world’s tempestuousness, anguish and even despair. Despair – and of course, no such talk is permitted in our so-called Christian vocabulary is it? Supposedly, to talk of such ‘negativity’ is to demonstrate a lack of faith thereof, but how contrary to the perpetual conflict the Apostle Paul endured.

Faith is not increased in exhilarating times; it is strengthened and multiplied in the very fires that would threaten to extinguish it; it is in the crucible that faith is proved and refined. Mere talk is shallowness; experience is the depth of character.

Paul certainly encountered despair – driven to his wits end – and God purposed that such perspectives and feelings were seen and felt in order that he would look only to God in impossible situations. Paul was a tent maker; he provided for his own resources (not excluding helping others), but there came a time when his own hands, common sense and wisdom availed him nothing in certain peculiarities – “But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God…” Have we been there? Do you currently taste such extremity? All those years you were so independent and now you feel so helpless and even useless. What good can possibly come out of this? How can the last few years be redeemed that seem such a waste at present? These are questionings that insinuate such circumstances are out of God’s jurisdiction, but, “All things work together for good…” – yes, even these ‘wasted’ years.

Do we not see that God is training us to rely on Him, that our hope is to be built on nothing less than God Himself? It is a life of faith God has called us to. It is what differentiates us from the world. Are we to know now where we shall be and what we shall be doing next year, (James 4:13-15)? It is in the now that God is working on our hearts that is His utmost priority – “…and all these things shall be added to you [when you focus on what I’m drawing your attention to]” (Matthew 6:33). God will have His way and be sure that as we are heirs of Him, through Christ, His purposes shall be fulfilled in and through our lives.

Where is our hope? Is it in people, friends, family, our pastor, our work, ministry or even our savings and retirement funds? Have we realised that God is showing us how unstable it is to lean upon such ‘safety’? Are we too proud and self-sufficient to let God take the reigns in our life? Is it beneath us to lean upon God in everything? The measure of our trust in God is the measure of His Lordship in our lives.

In God we have set our hope. That is all some people, who are in dire straits, can do and as wasteful and foolish as that may seem to some, in God’s economy it is of greatest value. God does so much in the preparation years that lie hidden until He uses us in spheres we never dreamed of. God uses those who are bent to His ways and that bending comes in no other way but through the intense heat of being baffled and broken.

The very pressure of circumstances are God’s way of moulding you; the very times you feel those overwhelming and heart-squeezing moments are the very ways God is having you constantly look to Him so that your hope becomes fixed in Him. Our hope has to set and harden just like concrete that becomes part of the brick. It is no good trusting for one moment; it has to be a continuous gaze for it to set, then it becomes a fixed hope. It is then our trust in God becomes as natural as breathing, so that when unfamiliar difficulties arise, we do not give way to panic but instead react automatically with the perspective of “my Father knows and He is sovereignly working all this together to the glory of His name.”

Throughout David’s Psalmody, we see a frequent pattern of trouble and calamities surrounding him, nevertheless God was with him; many were his afflictions but the Lord delivered him out of them all. “He delivered us from such a deadly peril and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again” Paul stated. It is not a wonder when are we out of troubles way and unharmed, but rather in the very throes of it we are kept – “when you pass…through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you” (Isaiah 43:2).

“So we do not lose heart [hope]…” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18) – and the reason why is because God is eternally alive and sovereign over all affairs. The very odds that are against us are shaping us for the coming glory indescribable. It is not some wishy-washy hope, because the Holy Spirit resides in our hearts Who has given us foretastes (as a guarantee) of what is to come.

No matter how much the media may forecast a pessimistic future – “the things that are seen” – we will continue to hope in our God by looking to the eternal that is currently unseen to the naked eye, but growing evermore brighter to the eyes of faith – “the certainty of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). This hope is the hope that does not or never shall disappoint, for it is impossible that God should ever lie at the promises He has made, fulfilled and is surely yet to bring to pass.