2 Corinthians 4:11-18 Do Not Lose Heart
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: April 24, 2020 2 Corinthians 4:11-18
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 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.
(Understanding the Text) When Paul speaks of “being given over to death”, he seems to be speaking on two levels: the physical body and life experiences. On the level of the physical body, we are dying and deteriorating day by day. Also, we suffer health problems and injuries. We are mortal and our mortality is ever present. On the situational level, Paul was experiencing persecution in trying to bring the gospel to people. He was being maligned by some of the very Corinthians who had life in Christ because he chose to bring the gospel to them. On a wider situational level, we are living in a broken world that breaks us into pieces, some small and some big, day by day. But Paul says that the very brokenness in which we live, whether physical or situational, demonstrates Jesus’ renewing presence in our lives. People can see Jesus’ strength shining out of our weakness. Maybe more importantly, we can feel Jesus’ life renewing us and healing us and shielding us from the mortality we face every second of every minute of every day.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) Paul says that because of the death in him, the Corinthians received life. I’m not sure exactly what he means, but I think that maybe it has to do that by Jesus saving Paul from his deadly path of sin and putting him on the road of righteousness, Paul made his way to the Corinthians to bring life to them. In his brokenness, Paul was open to receive Jesus’ life and that reception brought life to the Corinthians. Paul believed and so he spoke that belief to the Corinthians and they in turn believed. Together Paul and his friends in Corinth will one day stand facing Jesus in their glorious new bodies in a world full of life and hope in front of the Savior that they love.
Paul says not to despair because even as the clock ticks down on our bodies, our inner self is growing and becoming more alive. The brokenness of the world that attacks us and tries to damage us is counteracted by the beauty of Jesus living in us which not only repels attacks but also heals the damage done so that in the end we are better prepared for the new life that we will live with Jesus one day. For this reason, we live in hope looking beyond the immediate situation and the death and hatred and horrors that surround us to our promised future. These rotten situations will someday be gone. Our decrepit bodies will some day be replaced with health and life. There is more to come, and it is not more of the fear and death of this world. The more will be a new life of health and vigor in a home of love and joy and hope where the world will cooperate to bring refreshment to our lives and bodies. That world will last. This one is doomed to end, but a new world will be resurrected from this one.
(Application / Prayer) My application for myself is that the problems I experience, whether physical or mental or situational, can become the impetus of more life growing in me. Through the Spirit of Jesus living in me and loving me, I can be healed of my brokenness and shielded from others’ brokenness. I can be transformed into the person who can inhabit a sinless world of beauty and peace. Thank You that You care enough to live in me next to my broken evil selfish thinking and that You see potential in me and are transforming me to be a living blessing rather than walking death. Give me healing from the brokenness of this world and shield me from other people’s brokenness. Shield others from my own brokenness also.