Affliction: under pressure.  The writer of 2 Corinthians wrote about being afflicted.  He was “burdened excessively beyond” his strength.  So much so that he “… even despaired of life…”

This was the actual experience of people who lived during the days of Christian persecution under the Roman Caesars.  They faced physical death.  They chose not to trust in themselves.  They did not trust people to get them out from under the pressure of their afflictions.

They chose to trust, literally trust, the living God whose power raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

(NASB) 2 Corinthians 1:9 “indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;”

  This same God Who delivered men and women from death then, will also deliver us from the perils of the 21st century.

(NASB) 2 Corinthians 1:10 “who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope.  And He will yet deliver us.”

  We are to choose to trust the living God of the Holy Bible.  He is the same God today as He was yesterday and He will be the same tomorrow.  (Hebrews 13:8)

Our only hope is in the living God.  We have a living hope.  Not a hopeful hope… we have a sure hope in the faithful, living God.

Remember:  He is “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.”  (2 Corinthians 1:3)

~ Take it to heart ~

I am to run to God, not walk, not crawl, not drag my feet … but run to Him.

I am to kneel before “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort” in worship.

I am to yield to God!  He is Sovereign.

I am to know God.  Knowing God is to love Him.

I am to acknowledge that He is God in my life.

(NASB) Psalm 18:2
“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”