“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” 2 Cor4:16-17 ESV
These verses speak to everyone with a heavy heart. Since we live in a broken world, they speak to you and me. When the road ahead becomes clouded with fog and confusion… and we look around and see only despair, we can find the key to the yearning of our soul for something greater. God tells us not to lose heart when all seems bleak. He urges us to look past the present affliction and see with eyes of faith—the invisible work God is producing out even in our affliction. “There is a direct correlation between suffering in this life and glory (capacity to praise and glorify God) in the next. The greatest glory ever given was that given to Jesus for enduring the greatest suffering ever endured.”( John MacArthur) The loving motivation for us here, is the grandeur of what God is producing for our eternal good and His glory. We must look beyond the here and now and remember that God has much greater purposes and plans than we can humanly comprehend.
The temptation is to want to give up and sulk in discontentment and defeat. The next step forward seems so daunting that we find it hard to work up the courage and strength to move forward. Yet our loving Father calls us to toughen up and not make too much of our suffering. He graciously reminds us of His grand view from on high. He has bigger plans than we can conjure. They may certainly not be our plans, and they may involve more suffering and further seeming wasting away. Yet, God’s word gives us 3-D glasses to behold the display of His glory in what he is putting into production through our heartaches and pain. If we can see that inside the present hardship we face, awaits a gift with the most prized and coveted outcome; we will not only be able to bear it, but we will embrace it.
We must not let our sin reign and carry us into despair. Even though all around us the world may seem to be growing dark and some days the struggle to carry through seems unbearable, the light of the world still dwells within us. If we have been born again, then we are children of God and His Spirit forever resides within us. I love that God is both wise and kind. He is all-wise and knows we can’t do this life on our own and kind to give us a helper through the Spirit. Those days that we just feel empty—the Spirit sympathizes with our weakness and prompts us to cry out to the Lord who is ready to fill our hearts again.
Heavenly Father, our Help and Comforter. Thank you for showering us with your goodness through the dry valleys. Your seek only good for us. You have set your love on us and will never leave or forsake us. You have begun a wonderful work of remodel in our heart and have all the resources to bring it about. Oh, let us we walk intimately before you no matter what the cost. May you grant us eyes to see your kindness and presence even during those times you seem far off. Oh Lord may these verses be engraved in our mind and plated on the walls of our hearts.
This Thorny Rose 