“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. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you. But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.””
2 Corinthians 4:11-13 NLT
Paul quoted from Psalm 116 when he wrote, “I believed in God, so I spoke”. That Psalm is entitled, “Thanksgiving for Rescue from Death” and is an appropriate psalm for Paul to quote from. The Psalmist was in a place staring at death, “Then I called on the name of the Lord: “Please, Lord, save me!” How kind the Lord is! How good he is! So merciful, this God of ours! The Lord protects those of childlike faith; I was facing death, and he saved me” (Psalm 116:4-6). And as we read the rest of the Psalm, we can see how Paul must have found much comfort in it. We know from earlier in 2 Corinthians that Paul and his colleagues were in a dangerous place, to the point where they feared for their lives. But they, with the Psalmist, could claim, “I was facing death, and he saved me”. What connected the Psalmist and Paul? It wasn’t time, because they lived in different ages, separated by hundreds of years. They both attributed their salvation from death to God, but was there more involved? Of course, there was, and Paul put his finger on the missing element: faith. The Psalmist and Paul both had the same assurance of faith, that God would protect them in times of trouble. They both spoke out in the knowledge that God was there for them, close by, and able to save.
The writer of the Hebrews letter helpfully listed some men and women who displayed a faith so vibrant and real that it brought them through some terrible circumstances. Imagine having Noah’s faith, spending decades building a boat on dry land, a statement of faith to a nation that had never seen an expanse of water sufficient to float it. Imagine having David’s faith, heading out onto the battlefield armed only with a sling and five stones, facing a giant, a heavily armed opponent, saying, “The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!” (1 Samuel 17:37a). But even today, imagine sitting by the bedside of a seriously ill child, one who the medics had written off, but having the faith saying and praying that God would heal, and seeing a miracle as a result.
Paul was a preacher who spoke out his message of the Gospel because he had faith that God would protect him until his mission was complete. But even if he died because of the Gospel, Paul still believed he would be resurrected, just as Jesus was. He had the same kind of faith as the unknown Psalmist did.
What about us pilgrims? Where are we at with our faith? Such faith will take many forms, each dependent on our own circumstances. Our faith is a statement to this hopeless world around us, because most of the people we meet have little or no faith in anything. We have to look up to a Higher Power far above our politicians and leaders to find the source of anything worth having faith in. We may not be facing death at this moment, but there will be other things that need us to have faith to overcome. God is interested in the smallest hurdle that we face, but we mostly seem to associate faith with the big things in life.
There were three Jewish men who were faced with a life-threatening situation because they refused to worship the gold statue of a Babylonian king. We pick up the story in Daniel 3:16-18, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up””. That’s faith, that God will save even in impossible circumstances. But, and this is the “same kind of faith” that Paul had, even if God hadn’t saved them, the outcome would be better because they would have found themselves in God’s presence.
Paul preached the message of eternal life through belief in Jesus to a deeply resistant andresentful people, and he suffered much because of it. But he was sustained by the faith that he had, because the “life of Jesus [would] be evident in [his] dying body”. Paul was aware that his time on earth would be short compared with eternity, so he made good use of the time that he had, even though his body was dying. Paul didn’t know what his future held, but he had faith in the One who held his future in His hands. Do we have that kind of faith?
Dear Heavenly Father. You know all about us, when we go out and when we come in. You know what is going to happen in our lives and what our future holds. But we have confidence that regardless of what happens, we will one day be secure in Your presence. Forever. Thank You. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 