Power for the powerless

For while I was with you, I made up my mind to forget everything except Jesus Christ and especially his death on the cross. So when I came to you, I was weak and trembled all over with fear, and my teaching and message were not delivered with skilful words of human wisdom, but with convincing proof of the power of God’s Spirit. Your faith, then, does not rest on human wisdom but on God’s power.  (verses 2-5)

Read 1 Corinthians 2:1-13

In today’s reading Paul, one of the greatest missionaries of all time, reveals himself as a very ordinary person, vulnerable and acutely aware of his inadequacies in the art of public speaking. What this means, says Paul, is that the success of his teaching is due to nothing but the power of the Holy Spirit.

There is encouragement also for you in Paul’s words. The most important message ever, that Jesus Christ died on a cross to redeem all people from death, is entrusted to you to pass on to others. The second most important message is that you need not fear the task, because God’s Spirit empowers you to fulfil it, just as a weak and trembling Paul was emboldened by the Holy Spirit to share the gospel of Jesus with the people of Corinth. ‘But I don’t have enough faith’, Paul hears you protest. His answer is that faith too is a gift of God. Your Lord gives you everything you need to become a witness to the Wisdom of God namely, Jesus Christ himself.

Holy Spirit, I am so glad to be a follower of Jesus. But often I feel inadequate about sharing the gospel with others. Fill me with your power so that I can tell of Jesus’ forgiveness and love to those who are in need of his peace in the stress and uncertainty of their lives. Amen.

by Margaret Hunt, in ‘New Strength for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook,1998)

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