From Despair To Hope

FROM DESPAIR TO HOPE

a prayer to open

Holy Spirit, come. Center my heart.

Fill my mind. Guide my steps.

When the uproar was over, Paul sent for the believers and encouraged them. Then he said good-bye and left for Macedonia. While there, he encouraged the believers in all the towns he passed through. Then he traveled down to Greece, where he stayed for three months. He was preparing to sail back to Syria when he discovered a plot by some Jews against his life, so he decided to return through Macedonia.

Several men were traveling with him. . . . They went on ahead and waited for us at Troas. After the Passover ended, we boarded a ship at Philippi in Macedonia and five days later joined them in Troas, where we stayed a week.

On the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord’s Supper. Paul was preaching to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight. The upstairs room where we met was lighted with many flickering lamps. As Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Eutychus, sitting on the windowsill, became very drowsy. Finally, he fell sound asleep and dropped three stories to his death below. Paul went down, bent over him, and took him into his arms. “Don’t worry,” he said, “he’s alive!” Then they all went back upstairs, shared in the Lord’s Supper, and ate together. Paul continued talking to them until dawn, and then he left. Meanwhile, the young man was taken home alive and well, and everyone was greatly relieved.

Paul went by land to Assos, where he had arranged for us to join him, while we traveled by ship. He joined us there, and we sailed together to Mitylene. The next day we sailed past the island of Kios. The following day we crossed to the island of Samos, and a day later we arrived at Miletus.

Paul had decided to sail on past Ephesus, for he didn’t want to spend any more time in the province of Asia. He was hurrying to get to Jerusalem, if possible, in time for the Festival of Pentecost.

While Paul and his companions traveled from Ephesus to Macedonia (where Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea were), through Corinth, and then back through Asia, Paul wrote his second letter to the Corinthians (as well as his letter to the Romans). He shared just how intense and difficult his time in Ephesus really was: “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9, NIV). Paul attributed his survival to God’s deliverance and the prayers of other believers, which enabled him to move from despair to hope.

• Read this passage again. What word or phrase stands out to you? Sit quietly, reminding yourself that you are in God’s loving presence, and ask him to show you how that word or phrase connects to your life.
• What other believers do you or could you pray for on a regular basis? Do you know someone in the midst of difficult circumstances? Commit to praying for that person for a defined period of time.
• Do you have a prayer partner, a spiritual friend, or someone you could connect with once a week or once a month to pray? If not, who could you ask?

Father, thank you for hearing my prayers. I confess that I don’t understand prayer: It’s such a mystery in so many ways. But I am grateful that I can lift my voice and thoughts, present my unspoken needs, and bring others to you in prayer. Illuminate for me someone who needs prayer and support, and help me have the discipline to pray for that person. Please bring me to someone else’s mind for prayer. Thank you for hearing me. Amen.