Always led in triumph

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. – 2 Corinthians 2v14

I think one of the questions I want to ask Paul when I get to heaven is this, “What happened after you went to Troas that turned your heart around?” His despair seems to be deepening. He went to Troas to preach, found the door wide open, but left in discouragement because Titus was not there. That’s pretty much rock bottom. Paul missed a chance to minister because he was discouraged.

But something happens between verses 13 and 14. All of a sudden his “raw faith” seems to awaken. He catches a glimpse of the victory that he already has. He wrote about it in his first letter, but even he got discouraged afterwards. Now, there is a complete change of spirit – “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ!”

Wow! Where did that come from? From the depths of despair Paul proclaims victory won! I think of that as we are right in the middle of Easter weekend. As a friend said this week, I really don’t care if Jesus dies Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. Either way, there was a time period when His followers were discouraged and defeat seemed real. Satan and his forces must have thought that their victory was assured. Jesus laid silently in the tomb on Saturday.

Far too often we spend days of our Christian lives on Saturday. It seems that in the first part of 2 Corinthians Paul was living on Saturday.

What happened to wake Paul up? I don’t know. Possibly he simply chose to change his focus. Maybe he took his own words to heart. Maybe he grabbed on to that raw faith and claimed the victory that was assured and let God lead him in that victory.

As someone once said, “Sunday is coming!” Things are not what they seem in eternity. Our daily walk should be like the soldiers in the mighty Triumph Parade following our victorious Commander!

No matter what the circumstances – we are on the victory side.