2 Corinthians 1:3-8

Bishop Joseph Mukiira

“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 tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.  For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.  Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.  And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does^] deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us” NKJV

Today, life is so difficult, full of challenges and suffering that we end up being confused, desperate, disoriented, and hopeless. It is full of endless struggle, strife and toil such that we lack direction, we barely float through life without purpose, we seek advice from the wise philosophers but still this does not satisfy the inner hunger and lacking. This entire search and struggle too is futile and in vain.

People continuously seek direction and fulfillment from the wrong direction, the wisdom of men which cannot fill the ever deepening void in their lives. Suffering is considered contemptible yet inevitable while a human being lives. The reason for suffering is not understood by many, people continuously seek to understand the reasons for this condition. Unfortunately this dilemma cannot be solved using human wisdom, people need to shed off their understanding and seek divine reason for their individual and collective situations and conditions.

The passage I have quoted from says that comfort for a human being is not within him but with the Creator who is full of mercy and comfort. When one receives Christ in their lives they cease to live for themselves, the selfish self should die continuously and in its place a life of selfless service to God through service to His people. This habit does not come automatically but has to be purposefully learned as old habits are unlearned through a period of time.

They say old habits die hard, or it is difficult to teach old dog new tricks. Many of our learned mannerism and acquired habits don’t leave us easily but they cling and haunt us continuously. Suffering is a strange word from another world to our natural selves; nobody willingly wants to continue in suffering for their own sake leave alone for the sake of others. However when we receive Christ in our lives our lifestyles change and we adorn the lifestyle of Christ in us, a caring and loving lifestyle.

When tribulation, suffering and affliction come our way, sometimes we are at loss to understand or explain the reasons for them; we are unable to understand that it is neither about us nor for our sake that we go through some painful situations and circumstances. Sometimes we question our faith, motives, intentions and ask many other soul searching questions to which there are no ready answers, other times we encourage ourselves that God will have mercy upon us and remove the suffering from us, yes He surely will but according to His plan and timing and not ours. From the passage that we have read from, it is clear that God intentionally let’s suffering to come our way so that others might be encouraged through us. Therefore born again brethren need to understand that God uses them as road marks for other believers.

It is God’s intention that all born again Christians should undergo a paradigm shift change in the way they perceive God’s intentions and purposes. Jesus went to the cross for you, not the other way round, if man could save himself, then Jesus would not have come to earth. God sent Him purposefully to end the work of Satan in a man’s life and show man the right way to live in God’s standards. This is to say that man should cease the ‘self’ focus and receive ‘God’ focus.

God wants to comfort us Himself and He has no intention of making us suffer for any reason at all, He wants us to be mirrors for others who believe. This scenario is not very appealing by any earthly standards but God says that that is the way it is should be. Apostle Paul says that his suffering was for the sake of others and he was happy to undergo such humiliation and affliction, unfortunately the enemy has dulled our senses today that we should love our comforts and boast about them and despise any form of suffering.

Many times we suffer setbacks, failures and disappointments, but nobody takes pride in that or wants to testify about this. We are always eager to share the successes in our life while keeping to ourselves the dark side of ourselves. I know that this is true, we always want to show the bright side of our careers, ministry, life, covering everything with smile and the whole world sees us as we want to portray ourselves. God lets us fail so that others can learn from us, sometimes He wants to humble us yet in our sense of pride and a show of false achievement, we suppress that part of testimony and we want to show mightily God is using us.

Our setbacks, humiliation, affliction and shame are exposed by God so that we should be humbled before God, that we are just fallible human beings serving an Infallible God by His own grace, mercy and appointment and not by our perfection or power. While are serving God, we should be willing to accept any status that He allows to be in at any given time.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls – Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills. NKJV

The prophet was not overly concerned about what he had or had not accomplished but by what God had accomplished in his life and ministry, he clearly understood that his role in everything was to rejoice in what God was doing in his life. Whether crops, vineyards and livestock failed and cut off, he was willing to rejoice in the Lord because his work was not important, his success was not important.

This is a clear indication of what we need to glory in, we have to glory in the Lord regardless of our situations and circumstances, they are not really important. Our worth is in the service and the will of God and not about how people might think of us, how people would esteem us after some occurrences in our lifestyle. In failure, in success, in pain, in tribulation and in suffering we should always seek our comfort in God, so that through our painful experiences God can be glorified in others. God bless you richly as you stop complaining because of what God is doing with your life, your life is no longer yours but the Lord’s.

This devotional was written by Bishop Joseph Koburu Mukiira of Maximum Victory and Joy Worship Centre Nairobi-Kenya and brought to you courtesy of Journey 2 Joy International Ministries Inc. USA.