Don't Lose Heart

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” -2 Corinthians‬ ‭4‬:‭16‬-‭18‬

Do you ever hit hard spots and feel like you’re losing heart? Have you ever felt like your motivation and strength are slipping away? What can you think about in that moment to get yourself back on track? God gives you a mindset to carry in those times that can change everything!

In the heat of trails, we naturally feel like they will last forever! So why does God’s Word call our troubles momentary (v.17)? For the same reason God calls them light despite them feeling so weighty at the time.

God is not minimizing what you are going through or saying your pain doesn’t have mass to it. He reminds us that eternal glory far outweighs all that we are going through (v.17). What you’re carrying may seem heavy, but God’s everlasting and unshakable Kingdom has more gravity. It may seem like this trial is lasting forever, but eternity is so much longer and better that the two can’t be compared.

The weight of God‘s eternal glory with all that He has planned for you is so much greater than whatever you’re carrying! The length of His love and distance of His vision for you is so much farther than what you’re going through. This may feel like it's lasting forever now, but there is an actual forever in Him!

Look to Jesus who endured the cross for the joy set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). He was looking past the trial to something that lasted longer and had greater weight to it!

No matter what you’re facing in your mind or in your body, take heart because God has something greater for you in Jesus that will last for eternity! Set your eyes on Him and be overwhelmed by the greatness of God’s lasting Kingdom and not your temporary problem.

Right on?

Read/listen to 2 Corinthians chapters 4-6

Prayer focus: thank God for what you have to look forward to in Him and compare that to what you are going through now as you ask for His endurance

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Purpose In Your Pain

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us…” -2 Corinthians 1:8-10

Hardship and pain can seem unbearable at times and they can leave you with a lot of questions when it comes to your faith. Perhaps the most common question is "why". Maybe you have asked God why He allowed what He did since we believe theologically that God is all-powerful. If he could have stopped it or could have changed the situation, why did He not intervene?

It’s one of the most difficult questions we can wrestle with here on earth and we may not get a complete answer until we arrive in heaven!

One thing we can be sure of is that living a perfect life and pleasing God in every way would still not fix our problem of pain. Although everyone of us has sinned (Romans 3:23), Jesus never sinned yet He still endured hardship and pain in His body. Ultimately, they crucified Him on a criminal’s cross, which was His willing sacrifice for our sins!

Paul, a great man of God and mighty missionary, also endured significant pain while doing good! He said the pressure was so great that they despaired of life itself (v.8). This is from someone who was living for Jesus with everything he had!

If our sinless Savior and His most committed followers experienced terrible pain in their bodies, why would I think my path would not have pain just because I love God and do good things for Him? Jesus actually promised you will have trouble (John 16:33), but He also told you to take heart because He has overcome the world! Your internal or external pain may be strong, but God is stronger. Your greatest pain may be in the past or a present reality, but God has healing in your future!

I’m looking forward to heaven with a new body and no more pain or death! So, how can you endure the trials while you’re still on earth?

Asking better questions can provide better wisdom to navigate the hardships! Train yourself to ask “how God” instead of “why God”!

God can accomplish His purpose through your pain and He can bring good out of the worst situations even if you don’t see it in your lifetime. He can make a way when there seems to be no way! God can heal, restore, strengthen you to endure, and even provide joy despite the troubles of your life. Trust that God can accomplish great things through you despite the pain and ask “how” He wants you to respond instead of stopping short with “why”!

Right on?

Read/listen to 2 Corinthians chapters 1-3

Prayer focus: talk to God about the pain in your present or past and ask how He wants to fulfill His purpose through you despite your pain

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From Last to First

“For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.” -1 Corinthians 15:9-11

Do you ever feel like God has great plans for everybody else except you? Have you ever felt unworthy, excluded, and overlooked? Perhaps the enemy gives you a long list of reasons why you are exempted and disqualified from God’s future purpose because of your past.

If you’ve ever felt like God couldn’t use someone like you, you’re in good company because one of the absolute greatest leaders in church history said he was the least of all apostles and didn’t even deserve the title because of how he had persecuted God’s Church (v.9).

If you were to line up everyone that would be most likely to build up God’s Church, the guy that was working overtime to tear it down would be in the back of the line. However, God saw Paul’s potential to be a Kingdom builder when it was hard to see with human eyes!

God took Paul and made him one of the greatest Kingdom builders in the history of His Church. God took him from the back of the line to the front of the line. God took Paul from the last to first. The Holy Spirit worked in his life greatly.

Paul agreed that he worked incredibly hard (v.10), but he also acknowledged it was God’s grace that was with him! You will have to work hard, but you can trust that God’s grace can cover every flaw, failure, and shortcoming in your past or present! His grace is sufficient even for those in the back of the line - not just to hold you there, but like Paul, to carry you to the heights of His purpose for your life!

Where you start is way less important than where you finish! Paul’s journey didn’t look promising as a Jesus follower, but in the end he helped countless other people follow in the Jesus Way he had been so against!

Focus on what God has for you and don’t worry about what other people think of your past, your own reservations about your limitations, or the lack of your qualifications!

Instead, faithfully work at God’s calling in your life, rest in His grace extended through Jesus, and walk in His Spirit! Regardless of your past, God has a great future for you in Him!

Right on?

Read/listen to 1 Corinthians chapters 14-16

Prayer focus: prayerfully let go of the failures from your past, surrender your limitations to God, then talk to Him about the faith you have in Jesus for your future

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