He Lightens the Load

The dictionary says that the “good life” is “a life marked by a high standard of living.” For a Christian, the good life is having a sense of well-being no matter what the standard or the circumstances.

Twice this week I’ve talked with other Christians who said that each of us has some trial or affliction or problem in our lives, something difficult to deal with. All agreed that God uses the tough stuff for good. It humbles us, teaches us that we need Him, and gives us opportunity to experience His power to help us by either removing the problem or building our spiritual muscles so that we can persevere through it. Truly that grace from Him makes life good.

However, I sometimes get discouraged by the particular plate of problems that I’ve been served. Fatigue will do it every time, as does the aging process and the sense of time running out. Perhaps even worse is the “daily-ness” of it. I don’t want to keep praying, keep persevering, keep trusting. I just want to live life and do things, not battle affliction. I want those things to be solved, fixed, gone.

It is to this very struggle that Paul wrote to the church in Corinth. After reminding them that we have the treasure of Jesus Christ in “earthen vessels” so that God will be glorified (not us), and that we will eventually be raised with Him to glory, he says this in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

God knows that losing heart is part of life. I get discouraged when I think of the brevity of life and so little being accomplished. I get discouraged that I don’t have the energy I used to have, and by even regular chores taking much longer and more resources than seem available. Yet as I read this, I hear Him say to me that He is also using this for my good. He is teaching me and shaping me so that I might focus on what is eternal and not be so anxious about the stuff that will not last.

My devotional reading concerns these thoughts and finishes with this: “Yet all will end well with the people of God. Their life here is a life of temptation, of suffering and trial; but heaven will make amends for all. And if our faith is now tried as ‘with fire’ it will one day ‘be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.’ In that day when the secrets of all hearts will be brought to light, the faith of thousands will be found to be little else than presumption; but the faith of God’s dear family will then be crowned with ‘praise and honor and glory’ and they shall see the Lamb as He is face to face. . . .”

Seeing Jesus. Those words lift my spirit and turn my focus off all afflictions. One hymn says, “It will be worth it all — when we see Jesus.”

Those verses from 2 Corinthians suggest that I can also look at Him now, not with my eyes but my heart. Turn my eyes upon Jesus, and when I do that God will work glory in me. Seeing Jesus, who is the glory of God, has the almost magical ability to renew my heart and even if the afflictions don’t go away, they become light, almost weightless. Because of His grace, I can say again that life is good.