40 Reasons God DELIGHTS in YOU

Dr Jim Brown's TruNorth Devotional
40 Reasons God DELIGHTS in YOU
Day 24 | KEEP FOCUSED ON HEAVEN
KEEP FOCUSED ON HEAVEN 

2 Corinthians 4:17-18
“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 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.”
(NLT)

There’s an old spiritual song from the 19th century that says:
"Nobody knows the trouble I've been through
Nobody knows my sorrow
Nobody knows the trouble I've seen
Glory hallelujah!"

And then there’s the apostle Paul, in the 1st century reminding the Jesus followers then that their troubles were “small” and “won’t last very long” … compared to eternity!

Have you noticed that life is NOT perfect?  Oh, it may seem that it is for someone you know, but I have found that EVERYONE has troubles and problems and hurts, and that’s just a part of life here in this broken world and on this sinful planet.

Now, it wasn’t always like that, but you have to go back to the Garden of Eden for that short time when there was no sin, no brokenness, no troubles.

Have you ever been in a race of some kind?  Maybe cross country or a triathlon or something?  Did you start wondering during the event if you would finish?  You were probably feeling tired and maybe starting to ache here and there, yet the finish line was some distance away.  Did you consider quitting?

Paul tells his church folks here in Corinth to NOT give up and quit.  He is encouraging them to focus on the “finish line,” heaven up ahead, which we cannot see yet – but it’s coming!
Good advice for then and good advice for now too.

Prayer: LORD, help me to keep focused on heaven. Every day, I need to remind myself where home is, which will last forever. Amen.