The Secret I

“We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.  We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed” 2 Cor. 4:8-9 [emphasis added].

You will discover that as your life progresses, you are going to meet challenges. Life sometimes throws us curved balls and we get discouraged easily. However, how to think clearly when these challenges or problems come, is what we must tackle in this season. If there is one man in the New Testament that had a lot challenges in his life, it was Apostle Paul. And he says, “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.  We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed” 2 Cor. 4:8-9 [emphasis added].

How do we get pressed on every side and yet not get crushed? How do we get perplexed but not driven to despair? How do we get hunted down and yet not abandoned by God? How do we get knocked down and yet not destroyed? Problems when they come, attempt to do three things enumerated in today’s Scripture reference. Problems attempt to press us into defeat. We nurse the feeling of failure, of giving up, you feel like you have tried your best and there is nothing else to do. Problems attempt to make us perplexed until we are depressed. Secondly, problems attempt to hunt us down into a dark place, into a place of loneliness, a place where we cannot see ahead, a place of gloom.

But how does Paul go through these challenges and not come out defeated, depressed, or pushed into that lonely place? The secret is, “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” 2Cor.4:18 [emphasis added]. So Paul is able to overcome the press, the hunting down, and overcome all the challenges because he does not look at the troubles he can see now. I do not fix my gaze on my problems; I fix my gaze on God’s power. I do not fix my gaze on what is seen, I fix my gaze on the Eternal. This does not mean we should be in denial or refuse to face reality. The reason is that the things you can see will soon expire.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I choose to keep my eyes on You, not on the storm, not on the crashing waves, not on my feet, or the boat that I have left behind but on You, in Jesus Name.