2 CORINTHIANS 4:16-18 – 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, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

THEME OF THE DAY. LIFE UNDER THE SUN. Life is hard. We know it. We encounter difficult trials, heart-wrenching grief, deep sorrow, real suffering, lasting pain, crushing disappointments, and many sleepless nights caused by stress, anxiety, and worry. And I didn’t even mention the keen awareness of our frail bodies slowly, but surely, decaying, declining and making once physically easy things to do increasingly more of a challenge. And if we look at what I just wrote with earthbound eyes, we will lose heart. Discouragement and hopelessness will engulf us. But that isn’t the direction the Apostle takes us. If we are going to not just endure the inevitable difficulties in this hard life but spiritually prosper through them with joy, there are two mindsets we must embrace identified by the Apostle Paul.

First, we must see all of life through the lens of five words the Apostle Paul wrote concerning them – “For this light momentary affliction.” One of the most glorious truths about the hard lives we live in a sin-cursed world is that everything is short and passing. All we are facing and will face is going to end. Though our difficulties and trials may feel endless, they are not. They will pass. They will end. They are not eternal. Strive for this mindset. It will allow us to rejoice, even in difficulties, and it will set the stage for the next mindset we must have toward this hard life we live under the sun.

Keep remembering everything that is happening in our lives is doing a good work in us for God’s glory and our eternal good. Again the Apostle Paul – For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. The greatest Christian ever to live is telling us, “Don’t concentrate on what is happening. Put your mind on what is being accomplished in you through what is happening.” Remember – God is at work, all the time, and His work is making us like the Lord Jesus and especially in those hard seasons. Also remember, we grow spiritually the most in the dark and difficult of times of life, not in the so called “sunshiny” easy times in life.

Friends, life is hard. When sin entered the world that was assured and there is no escaping it, but we can endure, even prosper through it by heeding the right way to view life – temporary, passing, and preparing us for eternity.

PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for not only saving me by grace but You are keeping me by grace.”

QUOTE: “Trials are intense. Suffering is real. Life is hard. And all three will be over soon, very soon.”