For it’s the God who commanded mild to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to offer the sunshine of the information of the glory of God within the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6, NKJV).This divine command, “Let there be mild,” echoes not solely by means of the void of creation, however by means of the depths of the human soul, awakening the lifeless and igniting the flame of divine revelation inside frail vessels of clay.
And these vessels, earthen, susceptible and mortal, include inside them a treasure past comprehension, in order that the surpassing greatness of the facility could also be proven to be of God and never of us (2 Corinthians 4:7, NKJV).It’s on this paradox, this sacred pressure, that the furnace of affliction turns into the forge of transformation. We’re summoned into the crucible, to not be consumed, however to be refined, to not be damaged, however to be remade within the picture of the Son.
Pressed on each aspect, but not crushed, perplexed, however by no means deserted to despair, persecuted, but by no means forsaken, struck down, however not destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:8–9, NKJV). That is the holy sample, the bearing of the dying of the Lord Jesus in our our bodies, that His life, resurrected and victorious, may additionally be manifest in us (2 Corinthians 4:10, NKJV).
The flesh suffers and is scourged that the Spirit may rise, the outward man perishes in order that the inward man could also be renewed daily (2 Corinthians 4:16, NKJV).This, certainly, is the Christian thriller, that the trail to life is thru dying, and the ascent to glory begins with the descent into struggling.
For our mild affliction, which is however for a second, is working for us a much more exceeding and everlasting weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17, NKJV).We don’t repair our eyes upon what’s seen, for what’s seen is fleeting, mortal mud swept alongside by the winds of time. No, we set our eyes upon the everlasting, upon the unseen, the place Christ is seated on the proper hand of God.
It’s there, within the realm of eternity, that energy is born, the facility to endure, to beat, to rise from the ashes with magnificence unspeakable.Peter walked upon the waters whereas his eyes had been locked upon the gaze of his Grasp. And he started to sink the second he turned his consideration to the storm (Matthew 14:29–30, NKJV).
So it’s with us, brothers and sisters. Once we look to Christ, we stroll in divine energy, energy to interrupt chains, to nonetheless the storm, to boost the lifeless issues to life.Even within the fireplace, He’s with us.“Look!” he answered, “I see 4 males free, strolling within the midst of the fireplace, and they aren’t harm, and the type of the fourth is just like the Son of God” (Daniel 3:25, NKJV).
As with the three Hebrew youngsters, the world could peer into the furnace and behold One just like the Son of God strolling amidst the flames within the midst of our circumstances.And the testimony shall rise, not solely from our lips, however from our lives, that this, certainly, is the God of heaven (Daniel 3:28–29, NKJV).
Shall our lives not communicate of such glory, saints? Shall our lives not bear testimony of the majesty that resides in us, the Lord Jesus? Within the crucible, which is our lives, could our heavenly treasure pour forth as we’re poured out for His sake.
