For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within. 

What does the ‘victorious’ Christian life look like?

Some years ago, I met some people who had been in a fellowship where, according to them, no negative emotions were allowed to be expressed. I got the impression that it was meant to be ‘chandelier-swinging’ positivity all the way.

But this doesn’t fit with real life; and it doesn’t resonate with what we see and hear in the Bible.

Look at today’s text: Paul was not in a great place emotionally when Titus arrived. The inference from the next verse is, surely, that he and his companions were ”downcast”?

An extended quote from Tom Wright will help us. Paul faced ‘…a constant tussle against fears that welled up inside and opposition that attacked him all around. Every day when he didn’t find Titus waiting for him was another disappointment; every day he went on, hoping for good news but bracing himself for the worst. ‘Having no anxiety about anything’, as far as Paul was concerned, wasn’t a matter of attaining some kind of philosophically detached state where he simply didn’t care. He cared, and cared passionately. I think ‘having no anxiety’ meant, for him, taking every day’s anxieties and, with a huge struggle and effort, dumping them on the God in whom he doggedly believed.

The description in verse 5 of his own mental state…is a great antidote to any superficial or glib statement of what the normal Christian life is like.’

PRAYER: We thank you Lord that in all our fears, concerns, disappointments and heartaches you know precisely where we are, and how to get the comfort we need to us in a timely fashion. You are so good, and we praise you.