Don't Lose Heart!

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ESV).

Paul claims in our reading today to have found the secret of an experience that virtually everyone in the world wants to have. And I am referring to the experience of not losing heart, but being renewed day by day. There’s a negative way of expressing this experience, and a positive way. Negatively, he says, “We don’t lose heart.” Positively he says, “Our inner self is being renewed day by day.” I love the little meme I found recently. It is true: If “Plan A” didn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters! Stay cool. God has never run out of options. He hasn’t in your life either. I know I am preaching to the choir in this devotional. Everyone in the world wants what Paul has found. We can easily test that statement both negatively and positively. Did any of you read this devotional hoping, longing, or aching that I would write something that would make you totally lose heart? Did anyone of you click on this little message desiring to be discouraged? To have the breath knocked out of your hope? To have all your motivation for living stripped away? Of course not! And I would dare to say that nowhere in the world will you find someone who is longing to lose heart. Does anyone say, “Help me be hopeless. Help me lose my motivation. Help me be so discouraged I can’t go on”? No, so if Paul is telling the truth here, he has found the secret of an experience that everyone in the world wants to have. It is the secret of not losing heart. And test this claim positively. If I could offer you a way that day by day you could be renewed in your soul with hope and strength and joy, would any of you say: “I don’t want that; I don’t want the secret of finding real hope day by day; I don’t want the secret of finding new strength and new joy day by day”? If you really believed I had the secret, no one would say that. There are some who have lost heart. They don’t think there is any way to be renewed in hope and strength and joy. They have come to believe it’s too late. If you came here like that today, I am praying for you, that God would free you from that lie. The devil is a liar. But I pray that you will know the truth and be set free. Paul has found this secret. He is not a liar. There is a way not to lose heart. There is a way to be renewed day by day. Let’s begin this journey today by acknowledging the all of our doubts, fears, shame, or guilt are only the lies of our enemy, the devil. Focus on the absolute truth of God’s promise to do good in your life. That will set you free!