hello all :)
I apologize for the delay in writing this entry, but honestly friends, I had a hard time understanding how to apply this to my life life. It took a few times of me reading it and conversing with God out loud but, I think I have the gist of what Paul wants us to learn from this message.
In Chapter 10
Paul addresses the people of Corinth about confronting others regarding their faith or relationship with Christ. His main point, as it has been throughout both books of Corinthians is that it is important we recognize the source of our authority to this task. He says " we are human, but we do not wage war as humans do. We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down strong holds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments." (verse 3-4). It was very important that Paul was bold in this letter because people were beginning to question him and say that he was only strong in writing but not important in person. These ideas may have come from teachers and preachers who came after Paul and could have spoken badly about him to the people and they believed it.
The weapons that Paul refers to are found in Ephesians chapter 6 and are known as the full armor of God. This armor is very important because it protects the spiritual body from being attacked by the enemy and even natural attacks. It consists of the the helmet of salvation, the breast plate of righteousness,the belt of truth, shoes of peace, a shield of faith, and a sword which is the word of God. This equipment keeps our spiritual man strong and our fleshly body in check, especially when temptations comes. As I have read through this book, it is clear the
Paul was fully functioning in his armor of God, his bold spirit moves through out his words to the people. He also understood that it was not his words, or power but that of the holy spirit that work and moved through him. So if the people hurt him,lied on him , or anything really, it wasn't harming Paul but rather those actions were directed toward God. We know that God is the ultimate avenger, therefore we have no reason to fear, or worry about what non believers say about the Lord's message.
But this sort of power comes from full, YES FULL, submission to Christ. Every part of your being must be willingly committed to him. This only comes by spending time with God and approaching each visit with an open mind. Over time you will begin to willingly submit to his ways, and soon it will be hard to imagine what life was like without him. But the important thing to remember is that all this takes time. Hard time, but it's worth it time. Everything God does is for our benefit, not his, he already has everything he needs. Our relationship with him especially the obedience and faith portion, are to secure our future blessings and cover us from future attacks from the enemy. So if we do not invest in our relationship with him, we will have nothing to show for it. If we invest little into the relationship, we get little out of it and so on. So I think it is important to ask God for a heart to fully trust and submit to his will because honestly there is no other way.
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