The Secret to Not Losing Heart - Pt 1

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).

Before I start to get practical about this amazing principle, we need to look at two things in our reading for today. They are two things that make it profoundly clear that Paul has a right to speak to us about this. The last thing you need is for some naïve, ivory-tower, middle-class, inexperienced theorist to start telling you in your situation the secret of not losing heart. The truth is that your first reaction is that they have not actually walked in your shoes. It is natural to ask if they have the right to speak to you about your challenge. It is also natural to ask if the apostle has a right to talk to you about the trials and challenges of life. Does he have the right to tell you in your situation how to not lose heart and how to be renewed day by day? I could simply say that his position and authority were ordained by God and he writes from the very breath of God; but, God did not ordain that his authorized spokesmen speak from ivory towers of naïve, inexperienced comfort. He knows that as well. There are two things to see in verse 16 that give credibility and realism to Paul’s secret of not losing heart. The first is that the secret of not losing heart and of being renewed every day is a secret for the suffering and the dying. Paul says, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” The secret of not losing heart and being renewed is for those whose outer nature — whose body — is wasting way. “Wasting away” translates a word used five other times in the New Testament. In each case it is used to describe the condition where one does not lose heart, where you are renewed day by day. Let me paraphrase a bit: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self [our body, our brain and lungs and liver and heart muscles and bones] are wasting away [being destroyed, being eaten away and capsized and consumed and wiped out], yet our inner self is being renewed day by day.” The destruction of Paul’s outer man, his body, comes from two sources: fallen nature and fallen men. By fallen nature, I mean the whole natural world that is under God’s curse of futility, corruption, pain, and death (cf. Romans 8:20-23). God saves his children in stages. We are already forgiven and justified because of Christ, but we are not free from corruption and death. We will waste away, and we will die. Or we will be swept away in a flood or struck by lightning or die of cancer. This is what I mean by fallen nature. The other is fallen men. If nature doesn’t kill you, people will. Death really is at work in us. The experience of not losing heart in the face of this truth fades and must be renewed day by day. If you are a veteran Christian, you know this from experience. If you are newer in the faith, this is one of the most important things you need to know. Discovering the secret of not losing heart is not an experience that lasts a lifetime. It’s the discovery of a fountain of life, not one drink so that you never have to drink again. The secret is that you never have to look anywhere else for life and hope and strength and joy. He is that fountain of life. Drink deeply and drink often.