The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
“Trouble and Triumph”
Timothy was a sickly man, challenged by stomach issues and frequent illnesses. God chose not to heal him despite the ministry responsibilities to which He called His servant (I Timothy 5:23; 1:18).
As with his mentor, the Apostle Paul, the Lord revealed His strength by sufficient grace and strength made perfect in weakness (II Corinthians 12:7-10). No overt miracles delivered our brethren of old from their challenges. Many covert miracles, however, delivered them in the pains and ailments whereby the Lord Jesus Christ revealed Himself in ways unexpected to those who do not see the necessity of some thorns plucked by the hand of God, and others allowed to remain for His purposes to be fulfilled.
“We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (II Corinthians 4:7).
How well did Paul and Timothy discover the heart of God because His hand did not act in ways that would have been comforting, but which would have limited their knowledge of Him? Trouble and triumph went hand in nail-pierced hand in the “Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). As He now lives in those who trust Him, the same ministry to others forged in the fires of personal challenges comes forth from trials of countless modes and measures of difficulty.
“The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his Lord” (Matthew 10:24-25).
Paul doubtless often preached in pain, and wrote in writhing. Timothy likely experienced the same in his callings. Little deliverance from their issues seems to have been administered. Much triumph in their pains, however, flowed in grace and truth because our brothers found their Lord through the challenges He allowed to remain. You and I greatly benefit from these sacrifices, including at least thirteen New Testament epistles that would not exist had Paul not personally found the sufficiency of grace formed in his heart because God allowed soul and body to remain in pain. This includes I and II Timothy, written to encourage and challenge a protege and fellow traveler along the often thorny path of righteousness (I Timothy 6:11-12)
The same truth applies to all believers, including ourselves. Our Heavenly Father exempts no Christian from the truth that “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). No trouble, no triumph in this present world. The Lord Jesus journeyed to the cross in His physical body during His earthly lifetime. He now journeys from the cross in His spiritual body, the church. “I will dwell in them and walk in them” (II Corinthians 6:16). Paul and Timothy well knew the thorns that made possible the experience of Christ’s triumph in their hearts, and down through the ages, into our hearts. We give thanks for our brothers, realizing that our Lord works similarly in our lives to make possible the knowledge of Himself only in our own hearts, but even more for the communication to others by our lives and testimony…
“For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you.”
(II Corinthians 4:11-12)
Weekly Memory Verse
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
(Hebrews 11:1)
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