Stressed. Confused. Worn out. Exhausted.
Everyone has felt these at one time or another. Most of us have felt more than one and some of us all of them at once. They create seasons where we want to give up. We feel crushed and broken, alone and overwhelmed.
These moments of troubles and trials can seem like our eternal existence. They’re not. They have an end and will one day seem small and fleeting in light of eternity stretching before us.
We don’t give up and quit because we know that God never abandons us. We feel supernatural renewal in our spirits that gives us a vision beyond our present circumstances.
The life of Jesus is seen in us as we refuse to give up even amidst the weightiness of this life. Yet unseen coming joys, the mere mention of them, draw my focus beyond my present reality. What will last forever draws my focus beyond what is happening now.
“We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body… 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 4:8-10, 16-18)
