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2 Corinthians 4:17 - Look Beyond the Gloom to the Glory!2 Corinthians 4:17 (NIV) For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.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). Our troubles do not need to diminish our faith or disillusion us. We should realize that God cares deeply about our suffering, even when we don't have tangible evidence of his work. However, our problems and human limitations can have several positive results: (1) They can teach us how to suffer with Christ. (2) They can teach us to persevere faithfully. (3) They can teach us to look beyond this life for hope. (4) They can be used by God to demonstrate his power. Even when our pain feels great, God is still good and faithful, and his glory is always greater. [Life Application SB 2019] COMMENTARY PEARLS Sanctification is not the work of a moment, an hour, a day, but of a lifetime. It is not gained by a happy flight of feeling, but is the result of constantly dying to sin, and constantly living for Christ... So long as Satan reigns, we shall have self to subdue, besetting sins to overcome; so long as life shall last, there will be no stopping place, no point which we can reach and say, I have fully attained. AA 560-561 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). 6 BC 1099-1100 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. 1 T 705-7 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. 1 T 705-7 COMMENTARY When Life's Not Fair When Vicky's husband abandoned her and her two-year-old son, she needed to find work. On one fateful day of job hunting, she was brutally attacked - and shot through the neck - by a man pretending to hire her. Later that day, lying in an emergency room, she knew she would live ... but as a quadriplegic in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. In the years that followed, Vicky's anguish and bitterness finally began to melt under her friends' prayers, warming to the Word of God and its promises. "But sometimes I wonder," she once told me, "about the fairness of it all." I explained to her that it took the most un fair act in history, the execution of Jesus, to satisfy divine justice in a world full of injustice. That event made it possible for the least deserving of all - a convicted thief on a cross next to his - to gain an eternity of undeserved happiness. One day the scales of justice will not only balance, but they will be weighted in our favor, all for our good and God's glory. Vicky now understands that, even in her wheelchair, she is no better than that thief on the cross. By all that's "fair," she knows she should be on her way to hell and that there was nothing "fair" about Christ paying the penalty for her sins. She doesn't deserve such mercy. And neither do we. This present life of ours is infinitely shorter than the blink of an eye compared with the eternal beauty, purpose, and joy we will experience in the Father's house. Let your thoughts linger on heaven for a while, and then give thanks to the One who made it possible - by the great injustice of dying on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins. Lord Jesus, I praise you for enduring the humiliation, the injustice, and the unspeakable agony of your crucifixion to win an eternity of light and hope for me. [Pearls of Great Price by Joni Eareckson Tada] CLOSING PEARL 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 LINKS FOR FURTHER STUDY 2 Corinthians 4:17 - Look Beyond The Gloom To The Glory! https://www.abible.com/devotions/2023/20230422-1009.html http://www.abible.com/devotions/2019/20190730-1152.html http://www.abible.com/devotions/2004/20040902-1205.html http://www.abible.com/devotions/2010/20100831-1039.html 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 - Look Beyond The Gloom To The Glory! https://www.abible.com/devotions/2025/20250614-1342.html LINKS WORTH CHECKING OUT https://abible.com/links/ |