Paul says, “Do not lose heart.” It is amazing to find Paul having such a cheerful heart, after all that he has encountered in life. He went through a lot of hardships. We know that because he tells us personally in 2 Cor 11:24-27, “Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have laboured and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.”
Yet Paul can advise us here not to be too discouraged by the hardship and problems we face in life. How can he be so cheerful? Two things we learnt from him – he advise us to
(1) Look At What Is Unseen; and (2) Look At What Is Ahead
Paul says in verse 18, “Fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.”
We are very affected by what we see. We usually do the opposite of what Paul says here – we fix our eyes on what is seen, and not on what is unseen. I don’t think many of us will think about heaven, unless we are about to die. It’s too far from us. Yet the truth is we can find ourselves in heaven the next day, since life is in His hands and not ours.
Too often we are distracted by what we see. It’s like this farmer…
One day a farmer told his wife that he was going out to plough the field the next day.
He got up early the next morning so that he could oil the tractor. He needed more oil, so he went to the shop to get it. On the way to the shop he noticed the pigs weren’t fed. So he proceeded to the storehouse, where he found some sacks of feed. The sacks reminded him that his potatoes were sprouting. Then when he started for the potato pit, he passed the wood pile and remembered that his wife wanted wood in the house. As he picked up a few sticks, an ailing chicken passed by. He dropped the wood and picked up the chicken.
When evening arrived, the frustrated farmer had not even gotten to the tractor, let alone to the field.
Don’t be distracted emotionally by what we see. We are told to fix our eyes on what is unseen - the work of God in our lives.
You will be discouraged if you fix your eyes on what is seen. Paul mentioned at least two things that can discourage you: (1) our ailing body, and (2) the troubles we see around us.
Our bodies are slowly falling apart. Newspaper print seems to get smaller and smaller all the time. You have to ask people to repeat again because you say they are mumbling. You wonder why everybody is walking so fast. You are changing outwardly, not for the better but for the worst. The outward man is deteriorating, growing weak and feeble by the day.
This is only what can be seen. These will surely come. Paul says it is temporary and will not stay that way forever. There is something that we don’t see – “Inwardly we are being renewed day by day” – I may be weak physically, but inwardly I’m also changing – for the better. Outwardly I am wasting away, but inwardly – the real me is constantly being renewed – I’m growing more and more like Christ. Over the years, God has moulded me to be a better person. I’ve come to know Him, love Him and trust Him.
The psalmist describes it this way in Psalm 73:26 “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” God is working in my life, in ways I cannot see. The unseen Hand of God has been there to guide me and prepare me for heaven. Paul says we need to look more at the unseen – the work of God in our hearts and lives.
And then Paul mentioned the second thing that can discourage us – if we focus too much on it, and that the troubles we see around us. But they are light and momentary. They will pass away. And in fact, these light and momentary troubles serve a good purpose - they “are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (v.17) Job said, “…when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10). Look more at the unseen – the final product, the eternal glory that God has prepared for us who believes in Him.
Seen in the perspective of eternity, our hardship and difficulties, whatever they may be, diminish in importance. By comparison, the eternal glory is far greater than all the suffering we may face in this life. God is using all of these troubles to mould us for something better. Every day we’re learning something new in order to be better prepared for the place we are going – heaven.
Everything we see and experience here on this side of heaven prepares us for the other side of heaven. When we have this perspective, we won’t be discouraged. Everything is working according to schedule. Paul says, ’We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.’
(1) Look at what is unseen, and (2) Look At What Is Ahead
We are living in an earthly tent right now. Living in a tent may be fun and interesting, but not as comfortable. No one wants to live in the tent forever. You want to go back home to your house.
5:1 “we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands”. Jesus says, “It’s my Father’s house with many rooms.”
How long do we stay in the tent? Moses wrote in Psalm 90:10, “The length of our days is seventy years - or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.”
We will fly away. One day we must pack our tent – this physical body – and move out. The tent is a temporary and flimsy dwelling place – it is frail and weak. After weathering the storms of life for 70-80 years, this tent will give way. It is temporary. We need to move.
We have to move in to a building, our home – a building from God, a solid structure. Not build by human hands. It is perfect and permanent. Although unseen, it is real. We must learn to look at what is ahead, that which is eternal.
Having stayed in this world for so long, we can sometimes think that this is where we belong. This world is so real to us, because we can see, hear, touch, taste and smell in this world. Yet the Bible tells us there is another reality that is more actual and real. In fact that place existed even before we have this world. That’s our heavenly dwelling, Paul says.
Learn from Paul and live that cheerful life by looking at what is unseen and looking ahead to the heavenly home God has prepared for us.
Have faith in God. Heb 11:1 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Faith is the means by which we can see that which is unseen.
THE GLORY OF AGING
A woman nearly 100 years old wrote:
This old shell in which I dwell
Is growing old, I know full well,
But I am not the shell.
What if my hair is turning gray,
Gray hair is honorable, they say.
What if my sight is growing dim,
I still can see to follow Him.
What should I care if times’ old plow
Has left deep furrows on my brow.
Another house, not made with hands,
Awaits me in the Glory Land.
What tho my tongue refuse to talk,
What; tho I falter in my walk,
I still can tread the narrow way,
I still can sing, and watch and pray.
My hearing may not be as keen
As in times past it may have been
But I still can hear the Savior say
In whispers soft, "This is the Way."
This outward man, do what I can,
To lengthen out his life’s short span,
Shall perish and return to dust,
As everything in nature must.
The inward man, the Scriptures say,
Is growing stronger every day.
Then how can I be growing old
When safe within the Master’s fold?
Ere long this soul shall fly away
And leave this tenement of clay.
This robe of flesh I’ll drop and rise
To seize the "everlasting prize."
I’ll meet you on the streets of gold
And prove that I’m not growing old.
