2 Corinthians 6 (NIV)

¹As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. ²For he says, 
   "In the time of my favor I heard you, 
      and in the day of salvation I helped you."*^{a]" style="font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 0.5em; ">}  I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation. (*Isaiah 49:8)

 ³We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.⁴Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; ⁵in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; ⁶in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; ⁷in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; ⁸through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; ⁹known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; ¹⁰sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

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I was led to this passage and it's titled 'Marks of the Ministry' (NKJV) and 'Paul's Hardships' (NIV). Paul references back to Isaiah 49 (;alskdf beautiful chapter)

 ⁸ This is what the LORD says: 

       "In the time of my favor I will answer you, 
       and in the day of salvation I will help you; 
       I will keep you and will make you 
       to be a covenant for the people, 
       to restore the land 
       and to reassign its desolate inheritances,

 ⁹ to say to the captives, 'Come out,' 
       and to those in darkness, 'Be free!' 
       "They will feed beside the roads 
       and find pasture on every barren hill.

 ¹⁰ They will neither hunger nor thirst, 
       nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. 
       He who has compassion on them will guide them 
       and lead them beside springs of water.

Paul is encouraging the Church in the midst of 'time of favor'... Yet 2 Corinthians 6 is, yes, talking about hardships. Haha. I think the Isaiah-49-kind-of-picture is what we anticipated as we have been anticipating 'revival' / 'year of His favor'... And it is. I don't think we anticipated as much, the 2-Corinthians-6-kind-of-picture- and I know a lot of us are going through it... But I think this passage is further encouragement and revelation that it is the same picture. 

A 'time of favor' does not mean that we will no longer be facing hardships, that our community will be as unified as ever (though we can definitely press into it), and that we will be performing miracles left and right and leading people to Christ will be easier than ever... (Yes, it is a part of the bringing His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, but you get the point si?). Paul actually goes straight into the kind of hardships that we will be encountering and gives us a guideline on how we should respond to them... And Paul is a pretty intense follower of Jesus, who is empowered by the Holy Spirit, ahah... Anyways, the guideline I think is in verses 6-7. 

As we press in even more to purity, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness... in the very situations of various hardships we are facing... God's plans for how He's going to paint His kingdom in UCSD, which has been specifically set way before our awareness... will be fuilflled. 

It makes sense because how do we learn to be led by the power of the Holy Spirit anyways? By learning to become less and less dependent on our own abilities and confidence... How do we gain understanding of who He is? By allowing Him to be our God of rest in the midst of chaos... Trusting Him to be our Provider and attempt to fill our own needs... How do we practice using our weapons of righteousness? By facing battles and learning that we have access to things far more powerful than the powers of darkness (because we are the deeply loved sons and daughters of the King hehe)

Lastly I think it's important to not take His promise of 'time of favor' in vain, but to be sensitive and responsive to every 'receiving'... Because it has a heavenly purpose in a heavenly season- beyond what we see in our personal seasons. 

Just kidding. Lastly for reals. I was given an image of His rain. Rain is a pretty universal depiction of Him pouring out His kingdom, right? What was really beautiful was that I could see that (it 'zoomed-in') each rain drop was carrying a scene. And somehow I knew that each rain drop was a scene from heaven- specifically, the imagination of one individual, his/her imagination of how His kingdom would look like on earth. Hehe. Confirmation that as we pray, dream, commend ourselves in endurance, in hardships, in purity, in sincere love... Those dreams will be fulfilled. And He really does use every single one of our imaginations. He's sooo cool... :) :) :) <3

-soomin