We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. 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 Cor 4:14,18 (NLT)

Sometimes life seems to throw everything at us from all angles, doesn’t it? No matter where we turn, what we try, it feels like we’re losing the fight. Today’s scripture should encourage us as believers to look beyond the now into the permanent, the unwavering, to ready ourselves for the perfection that is to come when we are with our God, forever! Jesus has already lived the kind of life we all face, complete with its hardships, pain, friendships and rejections.

Basically, everything that life throws at us was thrown at Him and we can look at this in 2 ways. Firstly, in a wrong way. We could say, “Well, He was God so it was easy for Him.” Yes, he was God but remember he was also fully human, exactly like you and me. Life’s challenges affected him in the same way they do us. He overcame because of the closeness of his relationship to the Father not simply because He was God’s Son.

The second way is far more positive. It is to realise that we can overcome this life because Jesus overcame it. Life with its joys, struggles and death are all promised to us but they need not weigh us down because they lead to eternity.

Eternity is not temporary but permanent and our greatest decision is not when but where we’ll spend it. Please don’t misunderstand me. It’s not that life doesn’t cause great pain or suffering but if we can view them from the perspective of eternity, we can be cheerful in adversity, we can stand tall in the face of affliction or danger or uncertainty. It’s important to remember though that we can only do this if we focus on what is eternal and not on what is temporary. This life is short but eternity is forever.

Our circumstances and what we experience now are visible to us as Christians but to focus on them will only cause us heartache and maybe to give up. Paul is encouraging us to focus on the unseen, which is just as real, just as tangible and unlike what we see and touch now, they are eternal and imperishable.

Father, help us to look up and to look out beyond the now of our suffering, to see our future hope more clearly. Help us, Lord, to focus our hearts on eternity, on the place where we will one day be forever, our final destination, our home and all because of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank You, Lord. Amen