Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Have you thought or have you heard somebody say the words, "You think you have it bad"? Well, what happens in that moment is either you or whoever is saying it has a plethora of different things that are running through your mind or their mind of how they have it worse. They could go on and on and on and describe how bad they have it.
My Troubles Are Not Small
I'd love to use that as the lens that we look at our Verse of the Day through.
It comes from 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 17. The Apostle Paul is writing to the church of Corinth here. "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!"
When we just look at the first part of this verse, "For our present troubles are small," you may be in the moment thinking, my troubles are not small. It could be a financial problem, marriage problems, mental health problems, family struggles. It could be a variety of different things that you are weighed down with. You may be thinking, my troubles are not small. I can't identify with this.
That's where I'd love to look at the context of the overarching theme of 2 Corinthians. As Paul is writing this, it's about AD 55 to 57 thereabouts. If you know the time period, it was not an easy time. But listen to what Paul says actually in 2 Corinthians, same letter to the church of Corinth in chapter 11. This is what he says:
"Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys. In danger from rivers, dangers from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers. In toil and hardship. Through many a sleepless night. In hunger and thirst. Often without food. In cold and exposure, and apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all of the churches."
Goodness.
Paul's Perspective
I think about the stress and pressure that I have on me or the things that I've gone through. Then I read this. It's like, yeah, okay, I've never been stoned. I've never had many of these things that he just described. Yet Paul is the one writing the same letter to the church of Corinth and saying, "For our present troubles are small."
Boy, does it ever put my troubles and my struggles in perspective. Do you know what, though? The beauty of the God that we serve is He cares about the struggles that you're going through. I know they don't feel small to you. Let’s take some time, though, and just have a fresh look at the struggles and troubles that you're going through.
What's the One Thing?
If your house was on fire or let's say a tornado was coming and you're starting to think through your mind, what is the most important thing? If there's anything I could grab, what's the most important thing that as long as this is protected and this is safe, it's okay? It's going to be hard to lose everything or and have all this loss and the grief and the struggle through it. But what's that one thing or a couple things that it's like, you know, if you had those, that okay, at least you could suffice that you had those things or that whatever that is that your mind went to?
The thing with Paul in this passage is that one thing for him was his relationship with Jesus. I would just encourage you, and that's why Paul is able to have this lens with all that he went through. It's like Jesus is the greatest circumstance in my life. With everything else happening, is it hard? Yes. But compared to the surpassing glory of living this life in the presence of our Savior? That's one thing I want to make sure I have, and I want to protect it, because that—and that's what he goes on to say: "Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever."
Temporary vs. Eternal
A lot of times, the troubles and struggles we're going through are based on things that actually are temporary and are not forever and eternal. I would just encourage you: just take some time, take a step back. As you're feeling the weight of the struggle, turn your attention to the one thing that you're able to hold on to that lasts forever, that's eternal, and that's your presence with your Savior. Your relationship with your Lord. Let that be the greatest circumstance in your life today that you hold on to.
