Title
The Deceiver's Relay-Baton
Scripture
When we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears.
(2 Corinthians 7:5)
Devotional
Here we have the great lion of God, the apostle Paul: tired, opposed, in the midst of conflict and depressed. Have you ever been there? He went on to say, "Nevertheless God... comforts the downcast."[19] God may not always deliver us from conflicts, but He will always bring us through them. It more than often appears that life is nothing more than a series of conflicts. Sometimes I feel as if Satan has a relay-baton called conflict and that he passes it from one runner named Battle to another named Trouble and to another and another. Previously the apostle Paul put it this way, "We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed."[20] Here is what we know and here is what we can hold on to; Jesus said, "In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."[21]