March 26, 2009 2 Corinthians 1:12-2:4

The Change in Paul's Plans
This is what we are proud of, and I can say it with a clear conscience: In everything we hav edone inthe world, and especially with you, we have had an honest and sincere heart from God. We did this by God's grace, not by the kind of wisdom the world has. We write to you only what you can read and understand. And I hope that as you have understood some things about us, you may come to know everything about us. Then you can be proud of us, as we will b eproud of you on the day our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. I was so sure of all this that I made plans to visit you first so you could be blessed twice. I planned to visit you on my way to Macedonia and again on my way back. I wanted to get help from you for my trip to Judea. Do you think that I made these plans without really meaning it? Or maybe you think I make plans as the world does, so that I say yes, yes and at the same time no, no. But since you can believe God, you can believe that what we tell you is never both yes and no. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, that Silas and Timothy and I preacehd to you, was not yes and no. In Christ it has always been yes. The yes to all of God's promises is in Christ, and through Christ we say yes to the glory of God. Remember, God is the One who makes you and us strong in Christ, God made us his chosen people. He put his mark on us to show that we are his, and he put his Spirit in our hearts to be a guarantee for all he has promised. I tell you this, and I ask God to be my witness that is true: The reasons I did not come back to Corinth was to keep you from being punished or hurt. We are not trying to control your faith. You are strong in faith. But we are workers with you for your own joy. So I decided that my next visit to you would not be another one to make you sad. If I make you sad, who will make me glad? Only you can make me glad--particularly the person whom I made sad. I wrote you a letter for this reason: that when I came to you I would not be made sad by the people who should make me happy. I felt sure of all of you, that you would share my joy. When I wrote to you before, I was very troubled and unhappy in my heart, and I wrote with many tears. I did not write to make you sad, but to let you know how much I love you. ~2 Corinthians 1:12-24~

The lesson from this passage is to trust in God's promises. There was a misunderstanding of Paul's visit to Corinth, and unfortunately, all his plans failed and he had to visit the Corinthians to take care of some matter. Meanwhile, a group of false teachers try to accuse Paul of doing wrong. They make stuff up and tell the Corinthians about them, then Paul has to respond to those accusations to prove himself innocent. In all this, the Corinthians still aren't spiritually mature enough to rely on solely God, so they struggle. Paul had mentioned earlier in 1 Corinthians, that he and Apollos are just human beings, being used by God, but the true leader is God, and that's who we all should rely on.

We need to not rely on our own feelings, on our wisdom, on other people, on other people's opinions, and etc. We need to just rely on God, and his promises...this is one of the most important ways to spiritual growth. We tend to rely on each other a lot...then when that other person lets us down, we get so disappointed that we throw away that relationship. For example in romantic relationships, and also with our spiritual leaders. We need to build our lives on the perfect relationship with Jesus Christ. Only He can meet our deepest needs, and therefore we can form perfect relationships with others who have the same base/foundation in their lives.