1 Corinthians
4:11-12 (NLT) Even now we go hungry and
thirsty, and we don’t have enough clothes to keep warm. We are often beaten and
have no home. We work wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless
those who curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us.
I
don’t know what it is to go hungry though for many years I lived in Niger where
famine was a regular experience and is a current reality. Paul could have
avoided the hardships he faced by being disobedient. He could have lived a far
more comfortable middle class life and discussed theology from a position of
detachment. Instead he lived his message so that he could say a few verses
later I urge you to imitate me. He followed Jesus incarnational example, living
with the people he ministered to, working hard to look after himself as well as
preaching and teaching. He was authentically living out his faith and God clearly
displayed his power through him. And then we wonder why we are so powerless. So
many of us are compromised, we try to worship God while worshipping money, we
prefer to ease our stresses rather than pay the price of obedience.
Father, expose our hypocrisy
and idolatry, make us uncomfortable with compromise
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