Grave Clothes

Overwhelmed beyond our ability

We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters,  about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. – 2 Corinthians 1:8 (NLT)

I remember receiving my high school examination results. These weren't just ordinary results. The results I had determined whether or not I'd be accepted into a university. I love learning and gaining knowledge. I believe that knowledge brings light. Even in the bible, what makes people "perish" is not sin. But a lack of knowledge. What we do and what we don't do is a measure of what we know and what we don't know.

I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. Ephesians 1:16-17 (NIV)

Of all things Paul could have prayed for, He chose to pray for the church to have the spirit of revelation which makes us know the Father. What we know makes us live our lives in a certain way. And our relationship with God depends on our personal knowledge of who He is.

The beauty of having a personal relationship with God is that you get to know God for yourself. I don't mind learning about God through my pastors and my friends. I absolutely love it! But, our personal revelation of who God is makes us appreciate Him even more.

Paul didn't pray to have the wisdom he'd need to teach the church who the Father is. He rather prayed that they discovered the heart of the Father for themselves. The minute it becomes personal, our lives begin to change.

Failing is not something that is new to me. I fail more times than I can even admit. And maybe, it's the same for you. While I have a different attitude towards failure now, but when you do fail, it's still very shocking. There's confusion. And that's when we feel inadequate and lack confidence even in the things we can do.

When I failed my exams in the 12th grade, it was a big deal. I wasn't worried about how people thought of me. I was just disappointed in myself and I worried about how my mom and dad would feel about my failures. I failed math and all my sciences. I questioned many things. In one aspect, I was a failure. And in another, not so much.

I was apart of an inter-denominational fellowship known as scripture union. I was the evangelist leader. My role was to invite as many people as I could to our services. I don't say this to make myself sound so spiritual, but just to share why I felt so overwhelmed in my failures. While in school, I honestly had a great time serving God at the capacity that He enabled me to.

There were times I'd speak to my whole class about Jesus. I started out with just two friends. The only people I really hang around with. We chilled together. We watched movies together. We even shared a desk in class. Those two guys were my only friends. And they heard so much about God.

That little sharing led to having three more people join our bible studies. And it came to a point where I was sharing the word of God to as many as 30 people in one seating. I have never cared for numbers in terms of reaching out to people. I really never even tried to do it. God worked many miracles! Think about it. How often do you hear teenagers and youths hearing the word of God? And they didn't attend seminars hosted by a great revivalist. Oh no! They were stuck with me! Another teenager who didn't know anything.

Learning to rely on God

9 In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead – 2 Corinthians 1:9 (NLT)

I understand why sometimes non-believers think God is mean and angry and unjust. I don't understand everything there is to know about God. Trying to understand God is not something we need to bother ourselves with. God is just God.