Today's Daily Lesson comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 8 through 11:
8 We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again, 11 as you also join in helping us by your prayers, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
Today is December 1, the 65th anniversary of the day Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, marking the beginning of the modern civil rights movement.
In a book Mrs. Parks released when she was age 82 she wrote, "I felt the Lord would give me the strength to endure whatever I had to face. God did away with all my fear."
In times of trouble we find that there is a power in God in us which can cast out all our fears. There is a strength in God in us that keep us walking like the Montgomery bus boycotters -- one foot at a time, one day at a time.
And that is how the strength comes. It comes one day and one step at a time. If we had all the strength and courage we needed for the whole journey now already, then we wouldn't have to depend on God but would depend solely on ourselves.
But as it happens, God gives us just enough strength and courage for today. This keeps us on our knees, praying for our manna, and drawing again and again, day by day, from the well God's spiritual sustenance.
"I felt the Lord would give me the strength," Mrs. Parks said. That's subjunctive mood in grammatical terms, meaning wish, possibility, and action that has not yet occurred. In other words, it's the grammatical mood for Hope.
We may not yet have all the strength we will need to face what we have to face. But we hope to God it will happen. We hope and we pray and we keep on praying, day by day.
NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year. Tomorrow's Lesson comes from 2 Corinthians chapters 5 through 9.
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