Devotional: Light Affliction

Light Affliction

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
2 Corinthians 4:17

I type with a stick held between my teeth because I don't have enough strength to use my hands. I sit in a wheelchair because I can't walk. A ventilator on the back of my wheelchair breathes for me because my lungs are too weak to pull in air. If my nose began to itch right now, I would have to call a nurse to scratch it for me or just put up with the itching. Doctors and social workers classify me as "severely disabled."

Some may see the condition I'm in and pity me, thinking, "Oh, that poor soul! How he must suffer!"

Do I suffer? Yes. I wouldn't be a flesh-and-blood man if I didn't.

Does my suffering drive me to despair? I praise God that it doesn't.

How can a severely disabled man still have joy? Picture an old-fashioned two-pan scale. On one side, I place all my earthly suffering. On the other side, I place all the glory I will receive in heaven. Which side will have the most weight? My glory in heaven! Indeed, looking at this comparison of weights, my suffering doesn't seem heavy at all. Rather it becomes a light affliction!

Why complain that I can't walk when one day I'll dance before God's throne? Why complain that I need a ventilator to breathe for me when one day I'll be breathing in the full glory of God?

Paul says, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18).

Christian, all the suffering you go through on this earth is temporary. Your bad hip pain won't last forever. The unforgiveness your family has toward you will someday be forgotten. The loneliness you feel now will be replaced with constant fellowship with your Savior.

Are you focusing on the temporary or the eternal? When we focus on the temporary, we lose sight of the things that really matter.

Comments

[George Cancilla]

"When we focus on the temporary, we lose sight of the things that really matter." Many, many people who call themselves Christians, have this backwards. Thank you for standing in the gap Jason.

George