2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For 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. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
I’ve always loved these verses. I always looked at it from the perspective of looking forward to heaven and recognizing that the things and situations and struggles that we endure here are temporary. Which is true. But today I thought of something else. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is seen is eternal.” We can only see the “seen” – the people and circumstances that come across our paths everyday. The things that happen. The trials and frustrations that we encounter. The everyday joys and the wrenching heartaches.
But everything that we can see and touch is temporary. It’s not gonna last forever. The good or the bad. But the things we CAN’T see, the things that God is doing in and around and through us TODAY, that stuff is eternal. Hopefully, it will result in things and outcomes that we can see, but until we do, we can rest in the fact that the One who is eternal is up to eternal good in all that He is doing.
I want to live in the reality of the unseen. That place where my peace and calm is not dependent upon what I can see around me or what my circumstance might be on any given day, but in that eternal place where our unchanging God resides and works “all things for good for those who love Him”. I want to see through the glasses of eternity and think with a mind focused on eternal things.
I have been sitting in Starbucks for the last hour with high hopes of getting some writing done on my book. This is all that I have accomplished. Because my loving Jesus who sees beyond my book to the things that last forever saw two separate people that He loves dearly and wanted me to meet today. Eternal stuff. People and their souls. That’s the good stuff that He is always up to. And I really don’t want to miss it….
