2 Corinthians 4 - Growing the Spirit

I was talking a a dear friend last night whose sister had a brain tumor removed yesterday and as he was sharing how well things went, he also shared that another friend's mother passed away. This woman had fought through cancer. My friend had gotten a text that she had broken her hip...then that the fall had been caused by a heart attack...and finally that she had gone to be with the Lord. I knew this woman only in my prayers as my friend had been asking me to pray for her in her struggles this past year.

As I read this chapter, it was verses 16-18 that spoke to me, "That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 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! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever."

I am reminded to focus on things eternal. Yes, bodies break down, but spirits go on. The Bible tells us that we will receive heavenly bodies. We know that this one, that we have here on earth is just for this place, but God is molding our character into perfection, working on us until the day we die, preparing us for work in the heavenly kingdom. Earth is not really our home. It is the place we live and in our temporal thoughts, it is home because we don't remember/know anything else, but the truth is our time in eternity with God, in God's Kingdom will be much greater and is our true home.

While we don't know too much about what it will look like and all that we will encounter there, just like we would for a trip, we can look up information to help us prepare. The Bible tells us a great deal about heaven (I can recommend Randy Alcorn's book, Heaven if you are looking for a book that walk you through what the Bible says about heaven) and we can use this to prepare. We will find that it is our spirits, not our bodies that we need to work on. Therefore, focus on eternal things, those things that will last and remain when life on this earth is finished.