Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Mark 12:30.

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. Lamentations 3:25 NKJV.

But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31 NKJV.

As I read our chapter, 2 Corinthians 11, I realized Paul is fighting for the church at Corinth. He’s wrestling with all the things that are preventing them from keeping their eyes on God. I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness; but indeed you are bearing with me. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. v. 1-4. What do we accept beautifully to our hurt that is not the truth of Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit? For I consider myself not in the least inferior to the most eminent apostles. But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not so in knowledge; in fact, in every way we have made this evident to you in all things. Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge? I robbed other churches by taking wages from them to serve you; and when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brethren came from Macedonia they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will continue to do so. As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do! But what I am doing I will continue to do, so that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the matter about which they are boasting. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. Again I say, let no one think me foolish; but if you do, receive me even as foolish, so that I also may boast a little. What I am saying, I am not saying as the Lord would, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. Since many boast according to the flesh, I will boast also. For you, being so wise, tolerate the foolishness gladly. v. 5-19. What do we tolerate foolishly? Sometimes it’s good to ask ourselves that question. For you tolerate it if anyone enslaves you, anyone devours you, anyone takes advantage of you, anyone exalts himself, anyone hits you in the face. To my shame I must say that we have been weak by comparison. But in whatever respect anyone else is bold – I speak in foolishness – I am just as bold myself. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? – I speak as if insane – I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern? If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and so escaped his hands. v. 20-33.

It’s amazing to me that Paul needed to defend himself as an apostle of Jesus, the Son. Unskilled in speech? Even if that were so, not unskilled in knowledge. How many scholars and theologians have studied the writings of Paul? How many of his words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, have we cherished and found hope and strength in? How many words of Paul have we all wrestled with because they are deep and we try to keep up? How many words of Paul have some used to cause confusion and deep hurt, not just then but now? His foolishness was to help them see what was truly foolish. What do we wrestle with? Do we bring that to God? Do we trust God enough to bring everything to Him? Do we know God? Do we want to know Him? I think it begins with our own deep questions no one else can answer but God. There is a simplicity and purity in the truth of Jesus the Son as He brings us to closeness with the Father through the Holy Spirit guiding us. What do I wrestle with? My own fears that rise up from the depths of what is not. In this life – we all live – are hardships. But for me they are not of my worst fears. And He reminds me to live in the light of His Love and His Peace. To follow Him with my eyes open to Him…and as I do that, my foolish manufactured worst fears subside. He gives me every strength needed to face the real hardships of this world knowing He walks before me even as He walks with me through everything. Walking with Him is my comfort and hope and He renews my strength. The greatest blessing we will ever know is finding that Creator God IS, and that He is with us always. Hardships are not wasted. Love is not wasted. The Light of His Truth is not wasted. They all come to bear in this Life that Creator God created and the real journey begins with Him with us. We have so much to understand that is deep. Stay with God. He is our help always.