2 Corinthians 6

When life as a Christian starts to be easy for you, when you find yourself quite comfortable and enjoying your life, taking in the pleasures and delights of what you recognized as God’s blessings, when all seemed too good to be true, … it is good to stop, be still, and ponder about your relationship with God.

Yes, God is good. And His blessings are abundant upon those who truly seek after Him. He does shower us with material blessings. He also blesses us with loving family and friends.

However, when we start to see these blessings as more important than God Himself, we have to be wary. In fact, when these blessings overflow our cups, do we only see these blessings or can we still see beyond and see God?

The ministry of Paul and the other apostles then cannot be compared with our ministry today. Especially in affluent Singapore, we generally lead quite comfortable lives. It is definitely hard to understand the extent that Paul and the other apostles went for the sake of the gospel, but we know that they went all out so that their ministry “may not be blamed” or “so that no fault may be found with their (our) ministry”.

To go all out however requires us to move out of our comfort zones, as Paul described – in afflictions, beatings, sleepless nights, hunger, meeting with slander, treated as impostors, as sorrowful, etc. While we may not meet with these exact uncomfortable situations today, we may meet with a need to change our schedule for a friend so that we can have bible study together, or we may have to bear with colleagues’ talk behind our backs about why we do not celebrate Christmas.

These are uncomfortable situations, none of us like them; but do we still do it… because of Jesus?

To be honest, I still find it hard to find that “balance” – to what extent do I have to go to be considered as suffering for the Lord? Do I have to be praying in tears every day? Do I have to find myself going here and there preaching, pastoring, and finding myself all stressed up and tired in order to be called a servant of Christ?

What Paul went through was no easy feat, and I honestly do not know if I could have done the same if I were there at that time, but then perhaps I could, if I truly know how to rely on the Holy Spirit to lead me.

And I guess the day when we learn how “to be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing”, how “to be poor, yet making many rich”, how “to have nothing, yet possessing everything” is probably the day when we find that “balance”.

In the meantime, when life starts to get quite comfy, thank God for all those blessings, but also stop, and do a little reflection of your relationship with Christ, remembering that, sometimes, we need to be a little uncomfortable, in order to bring comforts to those who need it.

…. we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. (2 Corinthians 6:1)