Walk Boldly With Jesus

Do Not Lose Heart

Episode Summary

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal." This episode talks about how we may be focusing on the wrong things and how we can change our thoughts to be more positive if we are intentionally more grateful. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Episode Notes

Do Not Lose Heart

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

The beginning of this verse is something that is much easier said than done.  It is easy for us to tell others to not give up hope, don’t lose heart.  It is easy for us to tell them that the chronic pain they are having won’t last forever.  It’s easy to say the pain you are feeling over losing someone will fade one day.  It is easy for someone outside of the situation to tell you not to loose heart.  It is a much harder thing to actually do when you are the one in the middle of the hard thing.  It is very hard to not lose hope when you don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.  

What this verse is telling us is that even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.  Have you been sick for a very long time?  Are you just waiting for the pain or the illness to go away?  I have a friend that only has one kidney.  Not because of anything she did, she just happened to be born with only one kidney.  She has been in a lot of pain over the past few years.  She had seen several different types of doctors and they could not fix the pain.  She finally found one that was able to help her.  She was pain free for quite a while and then she started to get a lot of UTI’s.  These were quite painful and they kept putting her on medicine that didn’t work well.  It would take her several trips back to the Emergency Room before someone would listen to her and fix her medication.

I can see how she could be losing hope.  It is not fun to always be sick.  When you are sick you feel weak and your defenses are down.  The enemy loves to take advantage of this.  He loves to tell you that you will always feel like this. That there is no end in sight and that means you will feel like this forever.  I can see why he does this.  This is what it feels like and this may even be what it looks like.  The devil is not idiot.  He does not make up lies out of thin air to tell us.  He takes what is true and bends it to fit his needs.  He can see that it would be easy for us to believe that things will stay like this forever, because that is what it looks and feels like.  It is not a leap to think this.  You were probably already wondering and he is just confirming it for you.  

However, this is not the case.  This verse says that this momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure.  I don’t know if that helps you at all, but it helps me realize that this suffering I am going through right now is preparing me for an eternal weight of glory.  That is pretty awesome.  Sign me up for eternal glory beyond all measure.  You are not suffering in vain. The Lord sees your suffering and will reward you greatly in Heaven.  The verse also says, “we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”

This is telling us that we are looking at the wrong things.  We are looking at what we can see instead of relying on what we know.  We see our body staying sick, or wasting away, but we don’t look and see how much stronger we are getting on the inside.  We can’t see our faith growing and our trust growing. We also can’t see how much more resilient we are getting.  What we can see is temporary and what cannot be seen is eternal.  What if we focused on the eternal?  What if we were able to concentrate on the fact that this life is temporary and that our eternal life is going to be so much better?

The Lord does not want us to lose hope.  He wants us to keep fighting through the pain, through the depression, through the illness that seems like it won’t quit.  Some of my friends have had one bad thing after another for months now.  It seems like it is never ending and they are wondering when it is going to end.  When will it be their time to enjoy some calm seas?  When will they feel better? When will their loved ones get better?  When will these attacks from the enemy telling them they are not good enough stop?  I don’t have an answer for them.  I don’t know when it will stop or when things will get better.  I do know that God doesn’t want them to lose hope.  I know that He is there with them through it all.  

I wonder if it is helpful to think of this time as a training time?  I know it is a really difficult time and I also know that sometimes when I am going through a really hard time, a perspective shift can be enough to help me turn things around and stop feeling so badly.  I know chronic pain is not an easy thing to experience.  I wonder if thinking about that pain as training for eternal glory would be helpful?  Would it be helpful if you thought about your suffering as a necessary thing to go through to gain eternal glory?  Eternal glory beyond all measure is your reward for suffering here on earth.  Does knowing that make the suffering easier?  I can’t answer that for you.  Only you know what is helpful and not helpful.  I just wanted to explain what this verse was saying to the best of my ability and to pose some questions to see if thinking about your situation in a different way would help change your perspective.

Our perspective is everything sometimes.  We always have a choice how we look at a situation and if we choose the wrong way then we will not be helping ourselves out.  We do ourselves a disservice when we look at our lives negatively.  When we judge everything that we are going through in a negative light.  If we are able to change this, and try to see the positive side of every situation then we will live much happier lives.  Not because everything is all of the sudden sunshine and rainbows in our life,  but because we are choosing to shine a light into the darkness and brighten things up a bit.  I know this is not always easy and it does take some work, sometimes some hard work.  However, it is so worth it in the end.  Wouldn’t it be worth the hard work of changing our thoughts if it could change how we feel in any given situation?  It costs you nothing to change your thoughts.  It is something you can do even if you can’t change your circumstances and when you do you will feel like everything has changed.  

If you are not sure how to change your thoughts, the simplest and easiest way I can think of right now is to start being more grateful.  Try to come up with three to five things every single day that you are grateful for.  You may not feel any different the first few times you do it, but I promise, if you keep at it you will see a change.  I would suggest writing them down in a notebook so that you can look at them as often as you want and remind yourself of all the things you have to be grateful for.  However, you could always just say them out loud also.  Just take a minute or two and write down or say out loud things like, “Thank you God for allowing me to wake up today.”  “Thank you for my family.”  “Thank you for this wonderful cup of coffee.”  “Thank you for the sunrise.”  Whatever it is that you can be thankful for is great.  The more grateful you can be the better you will feel.  I have know lots of people that have tried this and they have all reported feeling better.  Give it a try, what have you got to lose?

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us when we are struggling.  Help us to focus on what is eternal instead of what is of this world.  Help us to keep our eyes fixed on you and the eternal glory beyond measure that you have waiting for us.  Lord, we ask that you put on our hearts to be more grateful, especially in times when it is difficult because we aren’t grateful for the circumstances we find ourselves in.  Even if we can’t be grateful for our current circumstances, help us to find something throughout our day that we can be grateful for.  We love you Lord, you are amazing! We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I wanted to invite all of you listening to get to know the Holy Spirit a little more and how to live in the Holy Spirit.  My prayer group is holding a free Life in the Spirit Seminar starting tonight at 7:00 pm EST.  It will be from 7-8:30 EST every Tuesday night for the next 7 weeks.  It is a great way to learn about the Holy Spirit and to even be baptized in the Holy Spirit on week 5.  If you feel like this is something you would like to check out send me an email at catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com and I will send you the zoom link.  Oh, I forgot to mention that it is virtual.  I hope you can join us.  It is a life changing experience.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!