“We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction that came to us in the province of Asia; we were utterly weighed down beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Indeed, we had accepted within ourselves the sentence of death, that we might trust not in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. 10 He rescued us from such great danger of death, and he will continue to rescue us; in him we have put our hope [that] he will also rescue us again, 11 as you help us with prayer, so that thanks may be given by many on our behalf for the gift granted us through the prayers of many” (2 Cor 1:8-11 NAB)

Praised be to God for this Word, which comes to encourage us and to develop joy in us. St. Paul asks that we take note of what he says, because he knew that we also would suffer, as he suffered.

At time, we are like Paul: Oppressed from above of our strength, to the point that reached the end. In some situations we feel defeated, pressured, without physical and emotional strength to fight.

Therefore, I say that love is  not a feeling, but a decision, for when all our strength leaves us, only love makes us continue ahead. Loving is the decision of doing that good that is with us it is our strength when we have no more.

St. Paul says that they lost the will to live so hard was the battle. When we are not understood and persecuted, when the atmosphere becomes suffocating or we remain mired with worry, the sensation we have is death. Many of us already have passed through this. But even with this feeling of anguish, Paul seeks to learn the essential thing. For the worse the moment is the moment that you are living, God will throw from them the best teachings for us. It is with the worst situations that you learn to give more valor to  your life. The apostle says to us that it is necessary to arrive to this point to learn and not to trust in our selves but in God who resurrects the dead.

In some moments of our life, the oppression is so great that we have the opportunity to grow in faith. From simple support, the faith passes to be our dependence on God. When we experience this dependence all bad situations change. Hence, we pass to give more valor to what we have.

When you see another person that already passed through bad situations and see death draw near, you see that this person knows the value that life has. The person begins to have a new joy and even is dedicated more to God and  to others.

Beyond giving more value for your life and dedicated yourself more it it, the person seeks to understand the difficulties that another is living. He or she becomes more merciful, more sensible to the pain of the other. This generates in his heart compassion, empathy. He or she becomes more loving and consequently more loved

The different situations serve to push us ahead and for us to be compassionate to the suffering of the other. These oppressions that make our blood boil in giving strength, which brings us above and makes us overcome suffering, for it is in this hour, that we learn the same thing that St. Paul did.  Trust in God.  losing the hope in our own strength.

You can even ask yourself: “But to lose hope in myself means to be discouraged? No. Losing hope in oneself means to discover that you are incapable of saving yourself alone.

When we stop trusting in our strength and counting on our own will for trusting in God, we see marvelous things in our lives. In this hour, the Holy Spirit reminds us of many situations of passing through that which God freed us from. He saved us in the past and will continue saving us in the future. This is our security and strength.

The words ends saying: “as you help us with prayer, so that thanks may be given by many on our behalf for the gift granted us through the prayers of many.”

Your prayer has the power of helping your and yours to be free from death. That the Lord may be able to concede this grace. Before all tests that you will be able to trust in God. He has the power of preserving the live of whomever suffers, but is it necessary to trust in Him over all.

Marcio Mendes

translated from Portuguese