“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..” – 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
I have been blessed and challenged as I’ve prepared for our current sermon series on Sunday mornings, based on the book, “When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box.” It is a very practical reminder that life is short, and it matters what we do. So often, the ‘eternal’ things of life take a back seat to the ‘temporary,’ instead of the other way around.
In the verses above, Paul reminds us that most of the things that we experience in this life will not last. They are just so much dust and ashes, they (and we) are ‘wasting away.’ And yet we treat them as so important! In reality, in eternity, it won’t matter what kind of car I drove or clothes I wore or whether I had the latest technological gadget. These temporary things can certainly be tools with which we ‘play the game’ of life, but they’re not how we win. We win when we’re rich toward God, when we invest in eternal things, when the eternal takes priority over the temporary.
The things that will last forever are much fewer than all the temporary stuff of life. When we invest in God and His Word, in growing our own souls, and in serving those around us, we are participating in the eternal. How are you investing in the eternal, becoming rich toward God?
In these days when things are uncertain and everything seems to be ‘wasting away,’ be encouraged that you can truly be renewed day by day as you fix your eyes on what is unseen - what will last. Because when the game is over, it all goes back in the box.
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