That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
Today is about reflection. At the end of the fourth and final week in our word study, I would like you to spend some time reflecting on what the Lord has been showing you. I will share my reflection of what I am learning about the process of renewal and what it means to be restored by grace
Mine is a story of secondary infertility. Our daughter is a singular miracle, we’ve come to understand. This means, however, that I have sometimes put on the unbalanced pressure of perfection in motherhood. Somehow I have believed that I get this one chance to get it right. In the early days especially, I did everything in my own strength. Truth be told, it is still a day by day process of undoing the old to receive more of His grace.
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. {2 CORINTHIANS 4:16, the Message}
Maybe, like me, you struggled to get pregnant and experienced miscarriage before your first child was born. Or you were able to conceive once only to be told you have a health issue and you’ll never conceive again. Or maybe your only chance of having kids would be if you adopted. You might have been blessed to birth three babies, but you never talk about why your first born is seven years older because of the miscarriages in between. If you are a parent, you have a story about how you produced your family.
You are productive in a million invisible ways that no one will ever see except your heavenly Father. You produce good things everyday. You may not be reproductive if you have suffered infertility, but the fruit you bear in the kingdom of God has eternal rewards in heaven.
The good works God assigned for you in this life produce a value far beyond what can be measured. You are producing elements of faith that the Spirit has produced in you through the trials and storms, in the waiting, the suffering and loss. These produce a weight of glory far beyond what you can imagine.
2 Corinthians 4:17-19 gives us theses four promises…
- Sight is short – The things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.
- Pain is temporary – Our present troubles are small compared to heaven, and they won’t last very long.
- Glory is unseen – We don’t look at the troubles we can see now. Instead, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.
- Weight of glory – Our pain is producing a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
All pains and pleasures we have known on earth are early initiations in the movement…but the dance itself is strictly incomparable with the sufferings of this present time. As we draw nearer to its uncreated rhythm, pain and pleasure sink almost out of sight. –C.S. Lewis, the Problem of Pain
Through his death and resurrection, Christ brings new purpose from your pain. He re-purposes the pain to make something more beautiful, an everlasting glory. You become re-productive when you give away the love He first gave you. You re-produce the purposes of the Holy Spirit in your life that bear fruit into eternity. He re-news and re-fills you day-by-day with all fullness of grace, in joyful expectation of His coming glory.
I am learning that when you give your pain over to Jesus, He transforms your story to produce your purpose. This is what it means to be restored by grace.
Reflection
Spend some time today reflecting on what you have learned through the word study this week with our theme on “rest, renewal, and restoration”. Write down your thoughts in a journal.
What lasting things are you doing now that you want to see in “forever”?
What is God producing in you by His grace that will bear lasting fruit?
Have you found any new scriptures in this study that blessed you? Which one was your favorite?
Please leave your comments below. Then share with some one else who needs encouragement!
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