#DailyDevotion We Live By Faith We Will Bear God’s Glory

2 Corinthians 4:16—5:1 ¹⁶That is why we are not discouraged. No, even if we outwardly perish, inwardly we’re renewed from day to day. ¹⁷The light trouble of this moment is preparing for us an everlasting weight of glory, greater than anything we can imagine. ¹⁸We don’t look at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen. What we see lasts only a while, but what we don’t see lasts forever. 1If the earthly tent we live in is torn down, we know we’ll get one from God, not made by human hands but lasting forever in heaven.

Jesus raised from the dead and his promise to raise us from the dead is what keeps us from being discouraged. We have a promise from one who already is raised from the dead. So our outer man is being wasting away, what of it? As the world observes we were born to die. However, we are new creations in Christ. Our new man is being renewed day by day from one degree of glory to the next.

So Paul, who was led down a city wall by night because people were trying to kill him, stoned to the point of death at least once, ship-wrecked at sea and waiting to be beheaded by the emperor says, “The light trouble of this moment is preparing for us an everlasting weight of glory, greater than anything we can imagine.” Yes, whatever we are going through may seem like it is the worst thing ever and like it is going to last forever. However, Paul tells us it is a light momentary trouble. How can he say that? Because he is looking to the future. He is looking at the promise. He knows what he is undergoing is preparing him for something greater. What we are undergoing is preparing us for something greater.

So what is this greater thing that makes our troubles, trials, tribulations, disease and hardships seem light? Pau tells us the everlasting weight of glory. That weight must be some heavy stuff considering the things we undergo in life. Yet what we see and what we experience now is only momentary. This too shall pass. It won’t last forever when we are in Christ Jesus. The glory that Jesus is giving us, clothing us with on the Last Day will last forever. We lost this glory in the Garden when Adam sinned. We gained it back when the second Adam, Jesus Christ of Nazareth obeyed in faith.

That is why Adam and Eve were naked. They lost the divine nature that clothed them. We gain it back in Christ. Through faith in Jesus the divine nature is renewing us inwardly. What is this divine nature? It is eternal life, the righteousness of God, God’s holiness, knowledge of God, the image of God, God’s glory and there could be more.

So we live now by faith trusting this old nature will be overcome by the new one in us. We trust our new home is being kept safe for us in heaven until we are clothed in by from on high. We can look at what we are going through now and look beyond it because it won’t last forever. What God has promised us in Christ Jesus will last forever. It is eternal. Keep looking at these promises when difficult times hit and you will get through them.

Heavenly Father, you promise us a new tent that overcomes this temporal one when Christ returns. Keep us in this faith until that time so we may not look to temporal things and lose heart but look to the eternal things and being strengthened by them. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.