| 2 Corinthians 4:16-18- “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight…” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” |
Hope is one of those stray words, easily thrown around until it is tattered and worn.
We hope for rain.
We hope Aunt Sally gets to come for Christmas.
We hope for raises, football wins, and new clothes.
Yet, the Bible cleans up the dusty old word and lets it sparkle again.
It is not a wish.
Hope becomes the expectation that something better awaits at the end of the road. Hope is what keeps you going when you want to stop. It gives breath to the breathless and strength to the weary.
Robert Louis Stevenson tells of an old farmer. Someone was sympathizing with him about his daily work amid the muck of the cowshed and asking him how he could go on doing it day in and day out, and the old man answered: ‘He that has something beyond need never weary.’
That was Paul’s hope that he told the Corinthians about.
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 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.” (2 Corinthians 4:16–18, ESV)
Hope sees affliction as light and passing because it can see what cannot been seen with the eye. The heart sees a place and time when burdens lift and pain ceases.
Remember the farmer’s words. He that has something beyond need never weary. Do you have that kind of hope?
–Robert G. Taylor
robertgtaylor.com
