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Glory Seed Devotionals, 2015: Year of Promise
Looking for things unseen…
“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed… So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 18, NLT)
The last couple of days we’ve been looking over our shoulder at the many times God has blessed us not just will blessings but with his presence. This morning let’s do a little anticipating because God is not moving us to the past but through the present into a future filled blessings. A word first about the present. Since time never stands still how are we to process the term “present time”? While a detailed look into the process of the present time is beyond the scope of a devotional I would like to offer a suggestion that might perhaps help our understanding.
I’ll use myself as an example. The first thing we need to do is not always think of the present time in terms of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years but in terms of things that exist in our lives. Sometime in the past the arteries around my heart became clogged and as a result have left me with a “troubled heart” and even though the original problem has been fixed through surgery at the present time I still have a troubled heart. Even though it slowly began years ago it is still exists in my present time now. I look forward to a future time (probably in the next life) when I will no longer have a trouble heart but for now I live with it present in my life and I need to live accordingly.
In the scripture above Paul starts out giving us a “present time” reality check, “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down,” but then quickly moves to the reason those things existing in our present time are but temporary and at the mercy of a loving God who has only our best interest in his heart, “…but never abandoned by God.” Paul then goes on to explain God does his best work behind the scenes not eliminating our crushing troubles but turning them into the building blocks of faith, “For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
Anticipate! Experience! Believe! Be transformed!
Grace and PEACE, Amen!
Gary
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Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 LEB)
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 LEB)
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“Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.”
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