Posts Tagged ‘Streadfastness’

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

II Thessalonians 3:1-5

I’ve been listening to a lot of gospel music lately.  I do it because gospel music makes me happy, and offers glimpses of hope in a world that at times seems overshadowed by darkness.  One of the songs I’ve come to find solace in goes like this:

Life is easy when you’re up on the mountain;
you’ve got peace of mind like you’ve never known.
But things change when you’re down in the valley;
don’t lose faith, for you’re never alone.

 For the God on the mountain is still God in the valley;
when things go wrong, he’ll make them right.
And the God of the good times is still God in the bad times;
the God of the day is still God in the night.[i]

The song acknowledges that life has its ups and downs, its mountains and valleys, and that it’s easy to talk of faith “when life’s at its best.” But when we’re “down in the valley of trials and temptations, that’s where [our] faith is really put to the test” (quotations from the 2^nd stanza).  Doubtless we know this to be true from our own experience.

St Paul knew it.  He had been on the mountaintops with God, borne into the heavens by the Spirit; but he also knew what it was to descend into the valley, to encounter resistance, persecution and evil.  It’s moving to see him, a great giant of the faith, beseeching the Thessalonian Christians to pray for him.  It is a mark of his humility, I think, and a valuable sign for us.  We need one another.  We need one another’s prayers.  Paul is well aware of his own weakness and of the enormous challenges that are part of his calling, and he is humble enough to implore his fellow Christians to pray for him. Read More