Thought Picnic: I'm Not A Dying Man

Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us. II Corinthians 1:9-10 – New King James Version

Finding strength

I have always considered this piece of Scripture quite profound and it did really matter to me when it seemed life was ebbing out of me as cancer took hold of my body.

I meditated on so many verses of Scripture to find strength to affirm to myself that I was not a dying man but a man with a future that I would live through this.

One should properly deconstruct this section of Scripture because it is important to understand where the will to live and the strength to carry on comes from.

The sentence will not pass

Paul in this letter acknowledged that they had the sentence of death in themselves, it would either have been by reason of their missionary journeys into hostile places or by reason of disease – either way, there was a sentence.

The realisation was that once the sentence had taken hold, they could not more trust in themselves to be free of the hold of that sentence, but not all hope was lost because they realised they could trust in God who does some amazing things well beyond that abilities we could ever manifest as men.

The first assurance is that God raises the dead, then He delivers them from so great a death which we can say included this death sentence, but His work does not end there, he does deliver and they trust that He will deliver if for whatever reason another sentence of death might materialise.

I am really not a dying man

It is amazing that there is a past, a present and a future component of this deliverance, we can agree that God is in the present continuous mode of delivering from the sentence of death.

Where does that leave me? I am not a dying man, I am a living testament of constant deliverance from the ravages of death trying to take hold of me either in my full awareness or in my lack of awareness.

The element here is trust, it should not be misplaced and it should be grounded on the basis of assurance that I am not a dying man.