Friday, September 14, 2007

But


Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:17-19

I wish I had a dime for every time I've gone to this passage to remind myself of this important truth: this life we are living, with all that goes with it, is but temporary. We all have our favorite passages and favorite books of the Bible, and for me, I would say that Second Corinthians ranks high near the top. I have a favorite word in Scripture; it's the word "but." You see it often , but I'd say especially in this epistle. Usually, we are blessed by what comes after the "but." Also, the Apostle Paul seemed to have a lot of "yet's" in this epistle, as well as quite a few paradoxes. I think I'll talk about some of those paradoxes soon, but for now I'll just focus on this particular "but", which reminds us that we should be careful not to focus our attention on the temporary things we are seeing here and now, BUT on eternal things. Amen.

4 comments:

Mimi said...

Thank you for the reminder Maxine, it is so easy for us to get caught up in the here and now and forget that Eternal life is the life that we should be looking forward to and leave the problems of today in God's hands

Francine Biere said...

I love posts that are powerful but succinct and this one is just that. Maybe we should seek out all the "buts" in the Bible and focus on what comes before as well as after that powerful word.

Thanks for the reminder.

Susan Skitt said...

Yes! I've heard people say about the Bible, "Oh it's a bunch of rules about what I'm not supposed to do." The Bible has words of warning and correction BUT it is also brimming with wonderful instruction of what we should do. I'm glad everything we need to know while living here on earth is revealed to us in God's precious Word. Yes, think on eternal things... that's God's perspective and needs to be ours!

Vicki said...

Oh, wow, AMEN to that! I'm so blessed every time I come here. Hope you are well, my friend. Good to read these scriptures, too...and enjoy your lovely graphics.

God bless you, dear friend.