Optimist Roundtable 10/21
By Martha Sykes
“We do not lose heart” are words from the apostle Paul that seem to matter in our world today.Any single one of us who try to serve God in any way can be troubled by or encounter many reasons to be discouraged in our present-day world. All we have to do is read the newspaper on a daily basis or watch the news to realize the amount of evil around us. If we take time to read about Paul’s experiences in his ministry we know that he encountered this same evil, whether it be the lack of love and devotion among people or any other bad things that we can hear about in the world these days. When we read the scriptures and the stories about the lives of the early Christians, we discover that it has always been this way. And Paul at this time was reminding the people of Corinth that in spite of what was happening, they should not lose heart. He wanted them to keep the faith.
When we think about Paul and all the preaching he did about grace and forgiveness, his focus was always on Christ and not on anything about himself or what he accomplished. It was all about Jesus. Paul served the Corinthian church even though the people probably disappointed him. Paul exemplifies to us that being a follower of Christ means serving others, even when they do not measure up to our expectations. As God’s people, we need to stick with people even though they’ve given us a long list of reasons to give up on them. Thank God He never gives up on us even though we’ve probably given Him plenty of reasons to do just that!
And we must remember not to lose heart. When unexpected things happen in our lives, it is during those times, or when the evil in this world makes us wonder about life, that is when our faith in Christ is often challenged and tested. When we encounter a hopeless situation, or struggle with an illness or death of a loved one,or get discouraged by our world, we are reminded of our human frailties and a strength and a hope beyond ourselves. That is when we pray and ask God for help and hope!!
