Week 30—Saturday 2 Corinthians 11:24-28
2 Corinthians 11:24-28
“WEIGHED DOWN WITH . . . CARES OF THIS LIFE”
We come to look at the final “take heed.” “But take heed to yourselves lest your heart be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life” (Luke 21:34). This was in the light of the “standing before the son of man,” that Great Crisis. But it could be applied to the lesser crises of life when we are called on suddenly to face an issue. What we are then will determine what we do. The Word become flesh, whatever it is, will be the word revealed. So Jesus was saying, Don’t be off-color, unprepared, when the crisis turns unto you for a testimony. And he named the sins of the flesh—“dissipation and drunkenness,” and also the sins of the disposition—“cares of this life.” And of the two the probabilities are that the sins of the disposition cause the greater weighing down of spirit, because affecting more people including otherwise good people.
“The cares of this life” may range from the maid who said to her mistress that she was resigning, “because life here is so daily.” She felt the “cares of this life” added up to monotony. Or it may reach to the woman who said, “I don’t have to work, but I work to keep from committing suicide. And my husband doesn’t have to work, but he works to run away from himself.” They were both weighed down with the oppressive inner feeling that there is no goal, no meaning to this thing called life. We can stand anything, provided there is meaning and goal and purpose in the things. Emptiness becomes the heaviest of burdens and weighs us down. And the burdened spirit is unfitted to be a witness—the Word become flesh. We are so weighed down by that which is around us that we cannot witness to that which is above us.
O Lord God, keep us fit every moment so that if we are called on by people or circumstances we may be razor-edge sharp to seize the opportunity and be ready witnesses for you. May we be minutemen—ready every minute. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: May my inner strength be strong enough to not allow the cares of this life to weigh me down.