February 21^st, 2018

2 Corinthians 4:8

“we are afflicted in everyway, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;”

This past week I have felt afflicted. In a lot of ways, but probably not everyway. I have felt crushed, whether it was my heart, my strength or my spirit there have been endless times of feelings of pain and suffering. I keep feeling like I will be driven into despair, that there is no hope for the hopeless. I couldn’t and still can’t necessarily see the light at the end of this tunnel. Every corner I keep on turning ends up as a dead end. I keep praying God show me the way. You say that you will guide me and lead me to where you want me to be, but I have no direction and no clue on where to put my feet.

What do you do when you feel this way? When you feel pressed on all sides and suffocated like there are so many things piled on you. So many responsibilities, emotions, situations you must deal with. You call out “God I am just finding it hard to remember that you are good, or that you are with me.” So how are we supposed to cling to this promise that God will be with us through it all? How do we find the words to praise God when we don’t even want to speak with Him? How do we become “unstuck” from the current place we are in to be closer to God? How do we learn to just see Jesus?

There isn’t just some kind of formula, at least not one that I am aware of. But regardless of how pessimistic I feel right now I know that when the church in Corinth read this letter there were heads nodding along and people weeping because just moments before entering the church they had felt like finally giving up. They some how concluded though that the suffering was worth it. They counted the cost and everything else was all counted as lost.

 In verse 17 and 18 it says “for this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, ¹⁸  as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” This verse reminded me of what I thought maybe the Corinthians were encouraged by. They had reminded themselves of the things unseen and not by the things that were seen. They knew what was instore for them in heaven was worth so much more than the petty earthly issues that I’m drowning in. Even though there is no remedy of how to fix my inner despair, I have this encouragement, that God is near and He is placing me through trials to prepare me for my eternal glory.