“Now you are the body of Christ,
and each one of you is a part of it”
I Corinthians 12:27

AGAIN!
Monday, March 30, 2020, by Pastor Bob Huisman

AGAIN!
Opening Prayer:
Almighty God, you are the light and life of every soul and my only source of hope.  Grant that in this time of worship I may experience your transforming power preparing me for what is ahead.  In the name of Jesus Christ.  Amen (Adapted from A Guide for Prayer, Job/Shawchuck).

When my children were small, they loved to be pushed on the big swings at Holland State Park.  The “underdog” is what they loved the most.  “Again!”, “Again!” they constantly begged.  And again and again, I would push them…1….2….3….UNDERDOGGY!!!
Again!” Again!”  1…2…3… and so on.

This would continue until I was too tired or too bored with the routine and needed to take a break or just do something different.
In 2 Corinthians 1, the Apostle Paul is confident that God will do something again.  Paul has faith in God and in God’s response to the prayers of His people that God will do it again.  God won’t grow tired.  God won’t get bored.  God will answer again.
Listen to what he writes:

2 Corinthians 1:3-11
³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. ⁵ For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. ⁶ If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. ⁷ And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
⁸ We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. ⁹ Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. ¹⁰ He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, ¹¹ as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.

Comfort, Hope, Endurance, Rely on God…all of these are exactly what we need right now in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
What we long for and pray for is DELIVERANCE.  God deliver us again.

Can you remember a time when God delivered you or someone you know from an impossible situation?  May that knowledge and memory strengthen your faith as it did for the Apostle Paul who wrote with confidence, “he will deliver us again!”

Blessing:
Go forth into this day with the strong name of Jesus Christ to sustain you.  Amen