April 30, 2016-RTM, Day 17

Today’s Verse:

I am focused on what is unseen and eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).

In Context:

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.  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  (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

This is sometimes the hardest thing for us to remember in the moment, that this too will pass.  The trouble of the day can quickly take over our every thought, change our mood in a single moment, and cause great anxiety, but we must remember that even though these troubles seem overwhelming at the time, they won’t last long, especially not compared to the sum of our lives. We will have many troubles, some tougher than others, so how do we keep them in perspective? According to these verses, we focus on the things that cannot be seen, such as God, the future, our faith.  I am all for praying about it and giving it to God, but for me, that’s not enough to keep my mind off of the trouble of the day, so I have to pair that with action.  If it’s a trouble that I have any control over or that I can physically DO anything about, then I will come up with a plan for what I can do and take it step by step to start working toward the resolution.  If it’s not something I have control over, then I focus on those things in my life I do have control over.  Staying busy and taking care of the others in my life at work, home, and in the community quickly takes my mind from anxiety to calm reserve.  It doesn’t make the problem go away, but it takes the intense focus from it and puts it in perspective with the rest of life.  As hard as some problems are, life does go on. It has to. That may sound harsh, but so is living in constant fear and worry about the troubles of life.  So to renew the mind, I focus on what I can change, on what work I can do to help myself and others, and then I give the things that I cannot control over to the unseen and eternal, leaving it to God.