Monday, August 5, 2024

Scripture:

2 Corinthians 4: 7-18, Romans 8: 28

Questions to Consider:

How can you see God’s hand at work in your current struggles?
What steps can you take to trust God’s plan even when you don’t understand it?

Reflection:

I, like many Christian kids who grew up in the 90’s, went through a phase where I thought the band “Jars of Clay” was the pinnacle of Christian music. When I first heard the song “Flood” I felt like they were speaking directly to me. I say that facetiously now because what did a privileged kid living the good life in a suburban neighborhood know what it means to, “slowly become one with the mud”. In that moment it was real to me and I am thankful for those days, however cringy they were, because I now understand the fullness of what it means to be a jar of Clay.

We read this in the above referenced text this morning,

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 2 Corinthians 4: 7-8

This great and powerful gospel that we have been given that leads to salvation and eternal life was not placed in a vault or a stone fortress. If that were the case then perhaps we could give some credit to the preservation of the treasure to the vessel it was housed in. But to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us he has placed this eternal treasure in these jars of clay.

Do you often feel like you are cracked and crumbling? Do you feel like if you were at any moment dropped from a relatively low height you would shatter to a million pieces and spill out all the treasure you have been holding? Take heart, the apostle Paul felt that way too. God has something more to say to us through Paul,

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4: 16-18

You are a jar of clay so that you depend fully on the God who made the vessel, not the vessel itself. God has prepared and is preparing us for a reality that is beyond all comparison. This is also a powerful reminder that all our weakness and suffering is not meaningless but that God is using it to fulfill his divine plan and purpose. Trust him, trust his provision, and trust his protection.

Prayer:

Thank you Lord for the ever present reminders to trust in you and for all the ways that you keep my life focused on you. Help me in my weakness Lord to lean on your surpassing power. In the name of Jesus, Amen.