~We felt we had been sentenced to death (because of the extreme circumstances)
~ but that was to keep us from trusting in and depending on ourselves
~to ensure we trusted exclusively in God Who raises the dead
As a result ...we have depended not on our own human wisdom
~but on God's grace, in our conduct before the world and especially toward you.
The extraordinary emergencies experienced, the stabs at killing them, the malicious and mercurial threats to their lives for that season in Asia worked to their advantage as they learned to trust exclusively in the Only One Who has power over life and death. They could not positively impact their circumstances by their own strength, wits and will; but in the perils they faced, this group learned that God Alone is worthy of complete trust as He Alone can raise the dead, and dead is what they expected to be.
The huge pressure taught them to disengage from their own knowledge and ability while locking on to God's provision. In this way, their conduct was dependent on God's grace and not their flesh (which had been subdued).
It's always about the uncomfortable and how I hate being uncomfortable. Stop and consider the disagreeable circumstances I find myself in do have purpose to divorce my allegiance to the world and this flesh that it might be rightly united to God. I trust Him for my life and look to Him for my eternal security, why not gaze at the grace of God rather than this vexatious view? Leave the human wisdom behind and embrace the fear of the LORD and His omniscience.
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