4SpiritualSecrets

“For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God …  eternal in the heavens.” (2 Corinthians 5:1)

A dragonfly is a marvel of aerodynamics with its two sets of wings that enable it to hover like a helicopter.  The dragonfly actually spends the first one to four years of its existence at the bottom of a body of water.  This underwater creature is equipped with two respiratory systems.  It has a respiratory system that enables it to inhale water through its long narrow body and derive oxygen from the water, as many underwater creatures do.  It also has a second respiratory system that will one day equip it to breathe air when it enters into its second dimension of life.

When the underwater, first existence of the dragonfly has been fulfilled, it rises to the surface of the water, climbs up on the land, dries its wings in the sun, spreads those two magnificent sets of wings and gloriously begins the second dimension of its existence.

The dragonfly is obviously designed by God to live out its existence in two dimensions. We have that in common with the dragonfly.  According to Paul, we, also, were designed by God to exist in two dimensions. God issues us an earthly body to live out our life here on earth, and God is going to issue us a heavenly body that will equip us to live forever in the second, eternal dimension of our providentially planned existence in heaven.

This is why Paul writes those profoundly devotional verses in chapter 4 of 2 Corinthians telling us that we should welcome, accept and embrace anything that grows our eternal inward man, preparing it for heaven.

“Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.”  (2 Corinthians 4:16)

Some of the most profound devotional thoughts ever written are found in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.  For example, he writes of the outward man and the inward man.  He declares the value that the inward man is a greater value than the outward man because the outward man is temporal, but the inward man is eternal.  He labels the outward man a little clay pot, a perishable container, a common earthenware jar, and a tent that is folded up when we die.

When he writes these verses, Paul gives great consolation to those of us who are older and to those who are suffering the ravages of illness. Old age is not for wimps.  Neither is a long debilitating illness like being a bed fast quadriplegic for decades. However, by personal experience, I can resonate fully with what Paul has written here.  I have learned to be grateful for anything God directs or permits in my life that grows my eternal inward man, which is a greater value than my temporal outward man.

C. S. Lewis believed that “The clergy are those particular people within the whole church who have been especially trained and set aside to look after what concerns us as creatures who are going to live forever.  Life was not meant for pleasure only, nor for ease, but for discipline. Not for temporal, but for eternal values.  Not for the satisfying of a life here on earth, but for the development of a life for heaven.”

Hold in perspective the reality that God is continuously shaping us down here so we will fit in up there.

“…  When I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10)

Paul opens a small biographical window into his life when he tells us about what he calls his “thorn in the flesh.” He explains that he had so many supernatural experiences that to keep him humble, God permitted him to have this “thorn.” Paul asked God three specific times to take it away.  Even though he had an extraordinary ministry that brought healing to many, three times God’s response was essentially “No!  But My grace will be with you and that is all you need to cope with the challenge of your thorn.”

Although we’re not certain what this “thorn” was he wrote to the Galatians that when he first visited them his eyes were so hideous to look at it made them want to vomit.  He reminded them that they said if they could have, they would have taken the eyes out of their heads and placed them in his. The book of Acts reports that at the same time his physician Dr. Luke joined him so he could treat him. This “thorn” was accompanied with severe chronic fatigue.  He mentions weakness so much in his writings we know that every day of his extraordinary ministry Paul had to cope with this extreme chronic fatigue.

Paul explains that his physical weakness was a showcase in which God could exhibit His Own supernatural strength.  In the Living Bible Paraphrase of this chapter God tells Paul, “My strength looks good on weak people …” And Paul confesses, “The less I have the more I depend on Him.” All of this is summarized in these words: “…  When I am weak, then I am strong.”

Will you let your weakness showcase God’s strength and grace today?