Never Without a Friend

   We are often troubled, but not crushed; sometimes in doubt, but never in despair; there are many enemies, but we are never without a friend; and though badly hurt at times, we are not destroyed. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, Good News Translation)

Two and a half years ago, I started reading through the Bible for the second time. I had hopes to finish it before 2020 began. Hmm? Didn’t come close.

But the other day, as I was reading 2 Corinthians (which by the way is 93% through the Bible, so maybe I have a shot at finishing soon), I came across these lines. I wondered to myself why I had never run across these verses before, like on a plaque hanging in someone’s office or at least on their Facebook page.

This was one of those times where I so liked the lines that I looked them up in other versions of the Bible.

 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but not crushed and broken. We are perplexed because we don’t know why things happen as they do, but we don’t give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going. (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, Living Bible)

I like the last line in the Living Bible translation. “We get up again and keep going”. Kind of sounds like every day for the last five months or so, huh? But the previous line is what gets us up and going. “God never abandons us”.

Lord Jesus, thank You for always being there for us. No one ever said life would be easy. In fact, You said that “in this world we would have trouble”, but we can take heart in knowing that we don’t have to get through it alone. Amen.