devotional post # 2147

2 Corinthians 1:6-8

2 Cor 1:6 But if we are suffering, it is for your encouragement and deliverance, or if we are encouraged, it is for your encouragement, which produces in you the patient enduring of the same misfortunes that we also experience.
2 Cor 1:7 And our expectation for you holds firm, knowing that, as you are sharers of the misfortunes, so also you are of the encouragement.
2 Cor 1:8 Because we do not want you to miss the fact, brothers, about the suffering that came to us in the province of Asia, the fact that we were weighed down extremely, beyond our power to endure, so that we thought we would even lose our lives.

shared encouragement

Paul and his missionary team experienced some terrible things. But Paul recognized that every one of those bad experiences led them closer to God, so that they could be encouraged by his presence. The Achaian believers were also in God’s plan, because they would be encouraged by the perseverance of Paul’s team, and would learn to persevere themselves. If we– as servants of God — endure no troubles, we cannot pass on the encouragement.

LORD, show us how to turn our troubles into testimony of your faithfulness.