"Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead." II Corinthians 1:9This verse was written on Emily Ralls' profile on Facebook the other day. Brian, her older brother, was killed in a car accident on I-40 last week when a driver came over the median and crashed into him. It was later found out that the other driver had been text messaging on his phone when he had lost control of the vehicle. TEXT MESSAGING!!! I played football with Brian in high school at Brentwood Academy. He was a grade behind me, but he was more built for playing football than I was. How do things like this happen? As Christians, we believe that God is sovereign over all things and that He is good, but it is still hard to understand why He lets these kind of things happen. Paul, the apostle, explains that these kind of things happen so that we might not rely on ourselves but on God. What a difficult challenge this is for us. It goes completely against our natural inclination as humans. Not rely on ourselves!? If we are not supposed to rely on ourselves, then who is there to rely on?!?! The answer is simple, but profoundly difficult to act on. I think that is why Paul throws on the last phrase at the end of the verse: "...who raises the dead." We cannot raise the dead. Only God can do that. And he did exactly that with His son, Jesus. This is the hope that all those who put their faith in Christ have. Help us to rely on you, God, the one who brings resurrection and new life!
