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Today's Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:10 Psalm 44:9-26
Well, a good Monday morning to you, and welcome to the merry month of May. I hope you had a good day yesterday at God's house and being able to meet with God's people, good fellowship together, but most importantly, I trust that you were able to gain something from God's Word that has been helpful to you, has been a challenge to you, and perhaps encouraged you in your walk with the Lord.
Today, this second day of May, this is my birthday month. It doesn't come until later in the month, but nevertheless, I'm very much aware of another year passing by, and the 65th year of my life heading at me.
With that awareness is also the awareness of something that Paul refers to in our Bible reading today in 2 Corinthians 4. He says, even though our outward man is perishing, aren't you aware of the fact that this outward man is perishing?
The older we get, the less we're able to do, we wane in our energy, don't have the strength to do what we did 20, 30, 40 years ago. Maybe you're not even 30 or 40 years old yet, but you'll find out soon enough that the outward man is perishing.
As I read that, what struck me is what he said just before that. Just before that, he said, therefore, we do not lose heart even though the outward man is perishing. How often do you find yourself losing heart at the perishing of the outward man?
I know what my inclination is sometimes. I've been having, for example, some pain in my hand, just at my thumb joint, and occasionally one of my knuckles, my right index finger knuckle, and that painful thing.
I go to turn a doorknob or something like that, and all of a sudden there's this catch, and it's just, ah, that pain. I don't think it's arthritis. I think it's probably some other malady associated with using the computer or typing too much or something of that nature.
I'm not sure exactly what it is, but nevertheless, being confronted with that weakness, that frailty of the human body, the reality that, you know what? Forty years ago, I didn't have that problem. I didn't have any problems like that at all, but the outward man is perishing.
That awareness oftentimes leaves me a little bit downcast. I lose heart a little bit. I go on a hike and not able to hike with the energy that I could hike with 15 years ago, or go on a walk. Just even a few years ago, I was able to pretty consistently, just doing a walk, get under four miles in an hour, at that pace, three miles, whatever it was.
But the point is that I've watched that dissipate, and I can't walk quite as fast, even as I did a couple of years ago. The outward man is perishing. But Paul says, you know, we don't lose heart. I have to admit, too oftentimes I do lose heart, get a little discouraged about it all.
But he says, I don't lose heart. How is it that you don't lose heart? Here's where I get convicted. He says, we don't lose heart, even though the outward man is perishing, because the inward man is being renewed day by day.
He goes on to say, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more and exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Then he says this, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen, for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Here I find the key to why I tend to lose heart when I'm confronted with the awareness that the outward man is perishing. It's because I'm focusing on the outward man. I'm focusing on the things I can see.
I can see my wrist. I can see the strength in my legs. I can see these things. I can see the time it takes me to walk a couple of miles. It used to be 27 minutes, and now it's 30 minutes and 59 seconds, or something like that.
I can see these things. Because I'm focusing on those things, I tend to lose heart. But Paul says, I don't lose heart because my inward man is being renewed day by day, and the way that my inward man is being renewed by day by day is that I'm not looking at the things that are seen, I'm looking at the things that are not seen.
This is a challenge to me. Is it one to you? That we look not at the things that are seen, the things that cause us to lose heart, but instead have our sights set on the things that we can't even actually see with our eyes, but only with the eyes of faith?
The things that we see are temporal. They're going to pass away. But the things that are not seen are eternal. The more I can set my attention and my focus on those things, the things that my eyes of faith see, the hope and promises that God has for not only this life, but the life to come, then I will find my inward man being renewed.
This is a challenge to us to look frequently to the Scriptures. Even though I spend time every day, first thing in the morning, opening the Word and reading the Word, it doesn't take long for my sight to get distracted and start looking at the things that are seen, my time it takes to walk, the pain in my wrist, and the headache that I may have those kinds of things that evidence the outward man is perishing.
May the inward man be renewed. I trust that even these few moments this morning will serve to be a renewal to your inward man, to get your attention focused on the things that are not seen, the things that are eternal, rather than those things that are temporal.
Let's pray and ask God to help us to do that, shall we? Our Father and our God, we do thank you today for what you have revealed to us in your Word about the things we can't yet see with our eyes. May those things be our focus, especially when we start to feel despairing and despondent, losing heart because we're focusing too much on the things we see.
Lift our eyes, we pray, and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, have a good, wonderful rest of your Monday, and I trust God will bless you in it. Good day.