Dirt or Gold?
2nd Corinthians 4:8-10 We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed– always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
God knows our struggles even before we go to Him in prayer. He desires for us to come to Him in these struggles and prayers to draw closer to Him; to grow that relationship deeper. The world presses in with its busyness, problems, and demands that every day life bring. These daily trials bring about the mental strains that breed stress and anxieties. These are all tools of Satan to keep us from focused on God. These inner battles can affect outward circumstances, and the daily grind becomes inwardly overbearing. There must be a crutch to keep us from falling. I pray that crutch for you is Christ. 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
It has been a rough week in many ways; I could pour out a lengthy explanation, but it is no worse than what you are facing yourselves; it is called life. But when my mind starts to wonder, when it struggles with the strain, I have to turn my attention back to Christ. There is nothing here that truly matters; for it will all fade away; I live with eternity in mind. I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14) All of struggles that life brings, all of the pain that life brings, is temporary. The roads of today’s despair will become streets paved with gold. Revelation 21:21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.
Paul has told us of being the light in this dark world in the verses prior. 2 Corinthians 4:6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. These strains of daily life can become on of your best witnessing tools for Christ to those lost around you. They see the strains you are under and yet how you can handle them differently. The natural inclination is to ask how or why you handle them differently. There is the open door through the darkness to let His light shine through.
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