Becoming a People of Prayer: Exposing the Lies

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.  He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favour granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

2 Corinthians 1:3-11

In this well-known passage of scripture from the Apostle Paul we see an exposition on the miracle of the comfort of God through strife and persecution as experienced through the fellowship of sharing and prayer. This is one of those passages that sounds really encouraging and warm – it makes us think about God wrapping us up in his arms when all we can do is cry while holding us tight telling us it’s going to be okay. For that reason it’s a very popular scripture to be read at funerals – in fact it’s a passage that I’ve used at a few funerals myself because it does communicate the beautiful truth about God’s compassion and comfort. That’s all well and good – but the problem is because it’s so notoriously associated with funerals we often look at this passage at other times and quickly pass it by without really pausing and reflecting on the totality of what it says.

Take another look at the text which I’ve added emphasis to for clarity:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. 

The comfort and consolation of God is experienced how? Through the comfort and consolation of others; through the sharing of sufferings. It is experienced through the testimony and experience of people who have been there before. Paul continues:

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. [Paul doesn’t think that he should keep his struggles to himself] We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. [Raw, authentic testimony and honesty] Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.  He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favour granted us in answer to the prayers of many. 

What is Paul saying here – allow me to summarize:

·       When you’re going through a valley it does you no good to keep things to yourself

·       When you share, don’t sugar-coat the details so as to soften the depths of your need

·       When all seems hopeless, look for hope in the testimony of what God has already done

·       All of this is accomplished through the prayers of God’s people

·       And when we practice this God will receive the ultimate glory

It’s all there in the text in plain English, we just need to read it, believe it and then the hardest part of all – we need to live it. Tomorrow we are going to start to expose the lies that keep us from accepting this clear scriptural teaching and which, as a consequence, keep us from participating in the prayer life of the congregation.