Daily Good News – Knocked Down But Not Out

Jul 7, 2015 1436

 

“We are experiencing all kinds of trouble, but we aren’t crushed. We are confused, but we aren’t depressed. We are harassed, but we aren’t abandoned. We are knocked down, but we aren’t knocked out” (2 Corinthians 4:8, 9).

If anyone had reason to complain about their misfortunes, it was Paul. In 2 Corinthians 11:23-27, he writes about how many times he has been thrown into prison, beaten, flogged within an inch of his life, stoned, shipwrecked. He says that he has gone without sleep, food, drink, and warmth, and that everywhere he has faced dangers, including being back-stabbed by those within his own church. Eventually, as a result of what smells suspiciously like a religious set-up, and after nine years in prison, Paul was executed in Rome.

And this is the same Paul who writes our verse for the day! In this short chapter, Paul explains what it means to live the Gospel life. He tells us that an absolute commitment to the proclamation of the Gospel compels everything that a true Christian does. And he reminds us that we are not promised an easy life.

Here is the secret of a resilience like Paul’s. It is based on an accomplished fact – something that we believe in by faith, not because there is no evidence for it, but because it happened before we were born. At Calvary and in Joseph’s tomb, Jesus has already conquered the world!

Hold on to that. Hold on by faith. It’s because of that, as Paul says, that, “we are knocked down, but we aren’t knocked out.” The storms may rage around us, but we will always stand in the victory of Christ.

 

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