Burdened but Blessed - Grace Baptist Partnership Month of Prayer and Giving 2025 Theme Interpretation

I was grateful to again provide the theme interpretation for this year's Grace Baptist Partnership month of prayer and giving. The theme for 2025 is "Burdened but blessed". The following article was distributed on 01 March 2025. 

"For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many." - 2 Corinthians 1:8-11

The apostolic letter known to us as 2 Corinthians does not hide from the painful realities of being burdened. Pumped up by high impact but no authority “super-apostles” (2 Corinthians 11:5), the Corinthian church had adopted a value system which elevated cultural standards of wisdom and strength that made talk - worse still, sight - of weakness, an embarrassment. Instead of adapting his preaching and adjusting his personality to conform to these expectations, Paul’s letter embraces his perceived foolishness and personal frailty to an almost comical degree. He is not going to pretend he is not burdened, when in fact, he is.

Indeed, Paul and those with him on his church planting and revitalising mission, simply did not have the strength to carry the burden placed on them. The potentially deadly consequences of the burden’s crushing weight are emphasised three times: “we despaired of life itself” (1:8), “we felt that we had received the sentence of death” (1:9), it presented itself in the form of “a deadly peril” (1:10). Yes, they were burdened, and even as Paul was writing still were. But they were also blessed. 

Looking at the wider text there are three layers to the blessing Paul and his coworkers enjoyed. They were blessed in the burden, as while carrying it they knew God’s comfort in Christ, and became testimonies of endurance for others needing comfort (1:3-7). They were blessed from the burden, rescued from aspects of it - at least its immediately fatal potential: “He delivered us…he will deliver us…he will deliver us again” (1:10). They were blessed by the burden. What did not kill them, made them weaker than ever, but showed them the Saviour. The burden “was to make us rely not on ourselves but God who raises the dead” (1:9). 

The Father of mercies, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Comforter - that is to say, the Trinity - brought salvation from the cross and life from the grave. He would continue that life-creating and sustaining work in Paul and his missionary cohort . And God continues that work today, among those who know, love, and serve him. 

The burden-embracing blessing of Christ-ward resurrection hope is the deliverance of every person faithfully committed to planting and revitalising churches. We seek to respond to God’s blessing by blessing others through this ministry, and are not ashamed to say with Paul: “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many” (1:11). Our burdens often take the form of increasing need and limited resources, so we ask that you likewise give generously and cheerfully, reflective of God’s distributed grace (2 Cor. 9).