Eye Examine

DEVOTION

2 CORINTHIANS

EYE EXAMINE

2 Cor 4:16-18

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

NIV

What here in this world could be worth more than eternal glory? Why do we get so overwhelmed by all the little stuff of this life? Why do we think anything is so important? Why are we bothered by anything at all? We get upset, anxious, worry and even to the point of getting ill over situations at best are only temporary. What is wrong with that picture? Do we not know that this life is just the beginning of something wonderful? Yet we spend so much of our efforts trying to make as much of this temporary life as we can. We strive to become great. We compete with our fellow man to see who can be better at whatever. Not just at games, but in intelligence, in wealth, in position and possessions. We compare ourselves with those around us, seeing if we have more or less then them, or what we have is better or not then theirs. We put so much value on education and career, success and yes even power. If we do not have we feel inferior to an extent, and if we have we feel superior. But all of it is just a flash in a pan, over is a blink, faster than a speeding bullet, gone before we know it. Nothing matters when we lie in that coffin being viewed by people saying how good we look, dead! Emperors and Pharaohs tried to take all their stuff with them, but to no avail it is still here and they are not. True some achievements last for generations after us, but some day even those with be destroyed either like some of the great cities of the past, or structures like the tower of Babel or Solomon’s temple, or they will be destroyed in the last day. This entire world and everything in it are temporary and in all reality we all are just wasting away in these bodies, with death awaiting its time. All that we see is not worth even the tiniest drop of what we cannot see. Let us fix our eyes on what we cannot see, let us fix them on the glory of what is to come, that which we cannot see yet, but one day will indeed not only see but be within. We will stand in the presence of God Almighty without fear, knowing his love, his grace, his compassion, his mercy, his divine fellowship, walking in the cool of the day among paradise with him, having him slip his arm around our shoulder, smile with great joy that we are there with him. That is our goal, the finish line. Let us fix our eyes on that and in doing so, all this temporary stuff becomes less meaningful. Let us do some self-examination, especially an eye examine.