July 28, why we 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 Paul can't see the way he used to see, and there were no eyeglasses.

He can't hear the way he used to, and there were no hearing aids.

He doesn't recover from beatings the way he used to, and there were no antibiotics.

His strength walking from town to town doesn't hold up the way it used to.

He sees the wrinkles in his face and neck.

His memory is not as good, and he admits that this is a threat to his faith and joy

and courage.

But he does not lose heart, why?

He doesn't lose heart because his inner man is being renewed, how?

The renewing of his heart comes from something very strange.

It comes from looking at what he can't see.

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, 18-18

This is Paul's way of not losing heart, looking at what he cannot see.

But then did he see, when he looked, a few verses later in 2 Corinthians 5, 7, he says,

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