"Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow"

This line from the third verse of "Great is Thy Faithfulness" was echoing in my mind as I got up from my quiet time this morning.

I'm beginning a study with a friend on 2 Corinthians, so I had just read through chapter 1. There are many awesome promises and truths in that chapter, but what stuck out to me this morning was verses 10-11. In verses 8-9 Paul describes how a recent affliction had caused him to "despair of life itself" yet God had used this trial to teach him to rely on God and not himself. In the first part of verse 10, Paul reports that God had delivered him from the "deadly peril."

What he says next is what caught my attention this morning: "He has 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."

Scripture often comforts those in affliction by exhorting them to put their hope in heaven, in eternity, in our sure salvation, and in Christ's return. Just last Sunday, for example, our new pastor(!!!!) preached a great sermon on 1 Peter 1 in which Peter comforts persecuted Christians by reminding them of their "imperishable, undefiled, and unfading" inheritance, kept for them in heaven.

In 2 Corinthians 1:10, however, Paul says that he has hope in God's ability to deliver him in this life. I know that Christians are not promised deliverance or "happy endings" in this world, but it was very encouraging for me to see this testimony that we can have hope for God to deliver and redeem in this life as well.

Verse 11 also adds an interesting element to Paul's hope: "You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many." Here we see the crucial importance of intercessory prayer. God has ordained prayer as a means of calling forth God's deliverance SO THAT thanksgiving to God will result.

I pray that in whatever circumstance you find yourself in today, you will set your hope fully on God and in his ability to save us in this life and the next.