Over the weekend, I was told a story about Terri. Just after losing her mother to cancer, Terri is diagnosed with a terminal form of lung cancer. In the midst of exhausting treatments, Terri decides it’s time to bring Jesus into her life. Friends, family and Christians joined in prayer with Terri, until one day she receives an amazing report — her lungs are totally cancer free on Good Friday! That’s great, but what about everybody that didn’t come out cancer free? You know, the people we all know, like my dad, my youth pastor, my uncle, my aunt, my grandparents, my kid’s friend’s parents, and the list continues. Are their prayers going unheard? Is there no mercy for them? What if the mercy was living through affliction? The Apostle Paul believed that there was effectively a blessing through our afflictions! Lets look at 2 Corinthians 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4) You see, don’t write this off as a cultural suffering, like most of us 1st world Christians do by saying– “oh there was no diet coke or artisan water bottles in the fellowship hall and so lunch was hard to swallow with all that MSG.” What Paul was talking about was a burden of affliction so great that their waning life blood was hard to sustain them– that is to say that they saw death as the better option! Your affliction, whether its your distaste for your job, persecution from family, health concerns, financial issues, or relationship problems may in fact be a blessing to those people watching you persevere through them. The blessing is not your inspirational strength and know-how, but your slow and quiet move to rely less on yourself and heavily and totally on God “who raises the dead” (v9). I want you to look at your affliction today and find God’s life giving blessings through them. He delivers His children and we can hope that He will deliver us in His way, when we pray.
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