2Cor002 Confidence in God

Paul moves from exalted and general statements about God as sovereign comforter and deliverer of the saints to a specific example of deliverance from his own experience. He explains to the Corinthians that God delivered him from a severe, near-death trial, which was divinely designed to teach him to put his confidence in the Lord rather than in his own flesh. Armed with the lessons learned from these afflictions and trials, Paul admonishes the saints to place their confidence in God and to exercise themselves unto prayer which is the divinely appointed means to affect deliverance from sufferings.