‘You don’t need eyes to see…’

2 Corinthians 4:13–18 (NIV)
It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 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.

Throughout these first four chapters of 2 Corinthians there is an impression of what it is like to be Paul, the Christian leader. And on the basis of what we’ve read I’m not sure many people would want the job! It seems to entail a lot of hardship and not much reward. But Paul reminds us in these final verses of what keeps him going and how to get things in perspective.
At first, fixing our eyes on what is unseen (v 18) sounds like an impossible task – but Paul is talking about faith. There is a brilliant line in a song by the band Faithless: ‘You don’t need eyes to see, you need vision’. In terms of the Christian faith it’s all about an eternal perspective (v 17). The future that awaits us when Christ returns to renew all things will definitely be worth the temporary hardships faced in the journey of following Christ (v 17).
Keeping this in mind is essential in helping us to be faithful.

Hebrews 11:1: ‘Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.’ May God continue to renew our faith.

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