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2 Corinthians 4:16-18 - Look Beyond The Gloom To The Glory!2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV) Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (Phillips) This is the reason why we never lose heart. The outward man does indeed suffer wear and tear, but every day the inward man receives fresh strength. 17 These little troubles (which really are so transitory) are winning for us a permanent, glorious and solid reward out of all proportion to our pain. 18 For we are looking all the time not at the visible things but at the invisible. The visible things are transitory: it is the invisible things that are really permanent. INTRODUCTION Paul had faced suffering, trials, and distress as he preached the Good News. But he knew that they would one day be over and he would obtain God's rest and rewards. As we face great troubles, it's easy to focus on our pain rather than on the ultimate goal. Just as athletes concentrate on the finish line and ignore their discomfort, we, too, must focus on the reward for our faith and the joy that lasts forever. No matter what happens to us in this life, we have the assurance of eternal life, when all suffering will end and all sorrow will flee away (Isaiah 35:10). It is easy to lose heart and quit. We have all faced problems in our relationships or in our work that have caused us to think about giving up. Rather than quitting when persecution wore him down, Paul concentrated on experiencing the inner strength that comes from the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:16). Don't let fatigue, pain, or criticism force you off the job. Renew your commitment to serving Christ. Don't forsake your eternal reward because of the intensity of today's pain. Your temporary weakness allows the resurrection power of Christ to strengthen you moment by moment. Paul gives a strategy for how to cope with terrible illness, persecution, or pain. We are to fix our hope not on this life but on the life to come. Knowing that we will live forever with God in a place without sin and suffering can help us live above the pain that we face in this life. (For more on fixing our eyes on Jesus, see Hebrews 12:2.) [Life Application SB 2019] COMMENTARY PEARL Heart Transformation The fuzzy gilled, pale-colored axolotl, a type of salamander that retains its larvae-like features, can regenerate almost any part of its body after an injury, including portions of its brain and heart. Humans may not be able to regenerate a body part like the axolotl, but our "inward man is being renewed day by day" by daily asking God to renew our heart. In this life, we will have "light affliction, which is but for a moment?" There will be trials to test our faith in God and to prepare our characters for heaven, but we are to remember that it "is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory?" We have to trust that God is working things out for our good because He can see the end from the beginning. Our eyesight is narrow and tends to stay focused on "the things which are seen," but we need to trust the Lord's eyesight. Child of God, keep your eyes focused on "things which are not seen," "for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:21). There is hope for you in today's promise that if "we do not lose heart," all our trials "which [are] but for a moment, [are] working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory?" What a beautiful message of hope! Lord of all, please renew my heart today. Keep my eyes on You and help me to trust in Your ways. [The Most Amazing Bible Promises by Amazing Facts] COMMENTARY Our minds take the level of the things on which our thoughts dwell, and if we think upon earthly things, we shall fail to take the impress of that which is heavenly. We would be greatly benefited by contemplating the mercy, goodness, and love of God; but we sustain great loss by dwelling upon those things which are earthly and temporal. We allow sorrow and care and perplexity to attract our minds to earth, and we magnify a molehill into a mountain.... Temporal things are not to engage our whole attention, or engross our minds until our thoughts are entirely of the earth and the earthly. We are to train, discipline, and educate the mind so that we may think in a heavenly channel, that we may dwell on things unseen and eternal, which will be discerned by spiritual vision. It is by seeing Him who is invisible that we may obtain strength of mind and vigor of spirit (ST Jan. 9, 1893). 6BC1099-1100 We are to "look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:18. The exchange we make in the denial of selfish desires and inclinations is an exchange of the worthless and transitory for the precious and enduring. This is not sacrifice, but infinite gain. "Something better" is the watchword of education, the law of all true living. Whatever Christ asks us to renounce, He offers in its stead something better. Often the youth cherish objects, pursuits, and pleasures that may not appear to be evil, but that fall short of the highest good. They divert the life from its noblest aim. Arbitrary measures or direct denunciation may not avail in leading these youth to relinquish that which they hold dear. Let them be directed to something better than display, ambition, or self-indulgence. Bring them in contact with truer beauty, with loftier principles, and with nobler lives. Lead them to behold the One "altogether lovely." When once the gaze is fixed upon Him, the life finds its center. The enthusiasm, the generous devotion, the passionate ardor, of the youth find here their true object. Duty becomes a delight and sacrifice a pleasure. To honor Christ, to become like Him, to work for Him, is the life's highest ambition and its greatest joy. ED 296, 7 In all ages Satan has persecuted the people of God. He has tortured them and put them to death, but in dying they became conquerors. They revealed in their steadfast faith a mightier One than Satan. Satan could torture and kill the body, but he could not touch the life that was hid with Christ in God. He could incarcerate in prison walls, but he could not bind the spirit. They could look beyond the gloom to the glory, MB 29, 30 These trials of life are God's workmen to remove the impurities, infirmities, and roughness from our characters, and fit us for the society of pure, heavenly angels in glory. But as we pass through these trials, as the fires of affliction kindle upon us, we must not keep the eye on the fire which is seen, but let the eye of faith fasten upon the things unseen, the eternal inheritance, the immortal life, the eternal weight of glory; and while we do this the fire will not consume us, but only remove the dross, and we shall come forth seven times purified, bearing the impress of the Divine. 1T 705-7 CLOSING THOUGHT Fixing Your Eyes On The Almighty You have the power, no matter how helpless or broken down you feel, to choose what you set before you today. You may not even realize it, but the eyes of your heart are always looking at something. If you set the Almighty in view, your temptations will be resized, demoted, reduced, diminished, and weakened by God's greatness. It all comes down to what the eyes of your heart are fixed on. When the eyes of our hearts are enlightened, we can know the hope that God has called us to. We can bask in the glorious promises given to the people of God and live with incomparably great power - the same power that raised Jesus from the dead! Where we fix our eyes matters. We can spend our days looking at the things of this world, and if we do that, our fixation will likely only grow bigger and bigger. But if we look up, if we gaze at the One who is seated at the right hand of God, the eyes of our heart will expand. Dear Father, I choose today to fix my eyes on You and You alone, trusting that in You is the fullness of satisfaction and joy. [Grace and Glory by Louie Giglio] LINKS FOR FURTHER STUDY 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 - Focus on What Will Last Forever. https://www.abible.com/devotions/2024/20240209-0823.html https://www.abible.com/devotions/2024/20240108-0739.html 2 Corinthians 4:17 - Look Beyond The Gloom To The Glory! https://www.abible.com/devotions/2023/20230422-1009.html Hebrews 12:1, 2 - FIXING OUR EYES ON JESUS. https://www.abible.com/devotions/2024/20240125-0725.html Isaiah 26:3 - Peace That Surpasses All Understanding. (update) https://www.abible.com/devotions/2025/20250227-1451.html Hebrews 11:1 - FAITH. https://www.abible.com/devotions/2022/20220829-0818.html LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT https://abible.com/links/ |