NOTE: I will be on vacation for the next two weeks, and unable to send out devotions. Archived devotions are available at the links listed below. Have a blessed next few days!
“We know that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into His presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 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.” 2 Cor. 4:14-18
Devotional Thought For The Day
Consider the life of Paul who wrote these things, lived by them, devoted his life to them, and ultimately ceded his earthly life for them in martyrdom. Christianity has always centered in higher aspirations than this temporal earthly life. It has always presented a greater reality and greater hope than mere blessings for earthly life. The principle of this faith is clearly stated: “the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” It is this hope of “an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” that moves us to live in a way that is counter-intuitive and contradictory to the ways of the world. Those who are focused solely or principally upon the things that are seen, the things of this world, cannot extricate themselves from selfishness, ambition, the pursuit of pleasures, luxuries, earthly prerogative and power. Those who look for the unseen things to come, in the presence of God’s glory, are able to incorporate a different set of values and principles into their conduct and management of the relatively short time that we are here in this world – those of Christ and His gracious, self-sacrificial love.
Of course, it makes a huge difference as to what unseen things are asserted as being real, and whether or not they are real, and just how it is that one comes into possession of these things, and becomes an heir of these things. Here the enemy has flooded the market with all kinds of perverse dreams and inventions – as peddled by the cults and false religions. After the true prophets and apostles wrote these promises of God [in the Bible, the only true Holy Scripture], and described how God has provided them all to us by grace, as His free gift to us in the redemption that has been provided for all human beings in Christ Jesus, to be received simply and solely by faith in Jesus Christ, the enemy has proliferated a wide assortment of alternatives – to keep people from seeing and understanding the wondrous love of God our Heavenly Father and embracing the truth. How do we sort them out, and determine which unseen things we will hope for and rely on, and which protocol we will follow in order to inherit them? A good many people have simply thrown up their hands at the cacophony of competing “offers” and have concluded they are all just “pie in the sky,” their sinful nature then compelling them to just live for the day, focusing on what is seen. Millions have lost the kingdom of God in this way – to the eternal shame and punishment of these liars and charlatans. And the world is a much poorer, meaner, crueler, and debased place because of this. And of course those who receive and embrace the lies are also lost to God’s love and His kingdom.
Christianity simply offers the real promises of God through His Word, and one either accepts this Word, recorded in Holy Scripture, the Bible, or one looks elsewhere and accepts other promises [which also purport to be from God, as all the false prophets, deceived by demonic spirits, have always claimed]. Thankfully, God has provided enough external and empirical evidence for the accuracy and truthfulness of His Word [the Bible] to render the inventions of the evil one as evident farces. This evidence only helps to sort out the various claims – the realities remain unseen, to be experienced only when our outer selves are worn out and we die, and God raises us with Jesus and brings us into His glorious presence. His promises remain consistent, both in regard to the content and also in regard to how we become blessed beneficiaries of His gracious love – by faith, and by faith alone. For only faith receives what Love freely and graciously gives. So the eternal blessedness is purely by His grace, His free gift, and as His grace extends to more and more people it does indeed increase thanksgiving to God, to the glory of God. And as this happens, it empowers those who pour their lives into this great work of God’s salvation, so that “we do not lose heart.”
It is only through the assurances of what is to come, based in a clear and true knowledge of God’s wondrous love, that we continue to be renewed day by day in the inner self – while we suffer aging, injury, illness, and the sacrifice of our lives to the greater good of God. But all of this “light momentary affliction” is seen, and therefore transient and temporal; by God’s Word and promise, God Who cannot lie [Tit. 1:2], we know that “the things that are unseen are eternal.” In this hope and life we will continue by the grace of God, through faith, until we receive all of the glorious unseen things promised and guaranteed to us by God our Heavenly Father. How we live our lives is evidence of the hope that is within us.
Scripture Cited
Tit. 1:1-3 “Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in His Word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior.”
The above is worth believing and living by.
Prayer For The Day
Dear Lord Jesus Christ, thanks and praise be to you for the redemption You have secured for us, and for all of the eternal blessings that are now ours by Your gracious love. Thank You also that Your grace continues to extend to more and more people, and that we are privileged both to participate in this grace through faith, and also to be part of the ministry of extending that grace to others through Your Word and Sacraments. Grant us continued inner renewal as our outer self wastes away and we draw closer to the eternal weight of glory that awaits us in Your kingdom. Crush Your enemies and bless many more with the gifts of Your love. Amen.