2 Corinthians 4:13-18We’re not keeping this quiet, not on your life. Just like the psalmist who wrote, “I believed it, so I said it,” we say what we believe. And what we believe is that the One who raised up the Master Jesus will just as certainly raise us up with you, alive. Every detail works to your advantage and to God’s glory: more and more grace, more and more people, more and more praise!So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.God will raise me up like Jesus. He will work every detail to my advantage and to God’s glory. So I will not give up. I won’t stop even though it looks like things are falling apart. God is making new life. Every day displays his unfolding grace.Lord, please forgive me for my failing strength. Let me lean on you for what strength I need to keep moving. Give me the courage to step out into what you have planned for me today.Show me how you work things to my advantage and to your glory. Let me see your grace at work.Fill me with your hope and your faithfulness so that I can keep doing this work you have laid out before me. Permeate my being with your joy and your love so that I can help others along the way. Let me trust in the things I cannot see now because they will last forever.
