2 Corinthians 4:7-12 (Pressed, Not Crushed)

⁷ We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
⁸ We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. ⁹ We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. ¹⁰ Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.
¹¹ Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. ¹² So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.

 ⁷ We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.   And so for some unimaginable reason that I will never understand, but which slowly seems like an incredible plan, God has chosen to put His light in us--we are some of the main instruments through which He has decided to whisper His love to the world (that is, when we show love to the world on His behalf).  But He shouts through our troubles.  We hold this treasure, but we ourselves are nothing to look at or to toot about, and so the idea that we hold a treasure would seem preposterous!  That is, until a Believer comes upon some trouble.  Anyone can praise Jesus in the good times, but we are most bright to the world when we are praising Jesus in the not-so-good times.  That is how the world looks past our tiny selves and sees Jesus.

⁸ We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. ⁹ We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. ¹⁰ Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.   Every person on earth falls into hard times, but one of the main differences God intends the world to see is how we respond to difficulty.  I know a woman who lost her husband and her 17-year-old daughter within 6 months of each other.  Just when she thought life was really starting to get great, she lost the two people most precious to her along with all the dreams she had for that future.  She grieved, oh how she grieved!  Please hear me say that Christians aren't stronger if they don't grieve or if they don't cry, no!  Tears and grief are as natural as eating three square meals.  But when the dust settled a bit, this woman chose to dig her heels in and keep trusting her God anyway.  Was she pressed on every side?  Every!  The financial, the emotional, the spiritual...the pressure got strong!  But she was not crushed, because she held onto a glimmer of hope that God was going to do something.  Then she was perplexed -- she didn't understand why God allowed this to happen.  But she didn't focus on the 'why' which would lead to despair.  Instead, she focused on the promises in Scripture.  And you know what, I think that is the hardest thing to do sometimes.  When I have felt myself spiraling into despair, why is it that the last thing I want to do is sit down and open the Bible?  It's not physically hard to sit down and open a leather-bound book, but in those moments, it seems that sitting down and opening a book is the last thing I want to do -- I'd rather stay up and moving and going and doing -- not sitting down and being quiet before the Lord.  And so digging our heels in doesn't always mean just going and doing even MORE.  Sometimes, the hardest, toughest, strongest thing to do is to trust God enough to open the pages of His Word.  And when we do...we will find that we have been knocked down pretty hard, we are bruised and bloody, but we are not destroyed.  No, we are not destroyed.

¹¹ Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. ¹² So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you.  Would you live differently if you knew you'd never leave this earth one day?  Yes, we do continue to live in Heaven, but what about this Earth?  Though we never cease to exist when we die, we will leave this world one day, and so we do "live under constant danger of death."  But as we all are one day closer to dying and leaving this earth, the hope is that "the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies."  There is something about knowing you're dying that causes one to live a different way -- Tim McGraw sang a whole song about wanting to "Live Like You Were Dying."  But we all are dying!  Whether our current trial is a terminal disease or a financial difficulty, we are all preparing to leave this world sooner than we'd like, and I want the life of Jesus to be evident in my dying body.  That is how the world will come to know Him.

"I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
--Jesus