Weekend Words

From Beside the Still Waters devotional...

The Weight of Glory - Read: 2 Corinthians 4:3-18

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory - 2 Corinthians 4:17

During our travels in India we went to the markets to buy our vegetables.  The seller would use a balance scale, putting a two-kilogram weight on one side and the vegetables on the other side.  Something similar is portrayed in today's key verse.  Paul was putting the total of his affliction on one side of a scale and the weight of the glory of Heaven on the other side, and saying that the heavenly glory far outweighed all the affliction.  Such a perspective requires strong faith.

Paul had the same human feelings that you and I have.  He was "troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed but not in despair."  He was even "persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed" (verses 8-9).  How could Paul do this; what was his secret?  First, Paul realized that he had a treasure in his earthen vessel (verse 7), which was Jesus Christ and the power of God.  He totally depended on the grace of God to carry him through.  Second, Paul looked beyond his immediate circumstances to the glories of Heaven.  He focused not on temporal things but on eternal things (verse 18).  As a result, he saw all his trials and persecutions as light affliction.

Which way does the scale tip in our experience?  Do we allow the trials and tests of life to pull us down?  If so, let's take fresh courage as Paul did, look beyond our circumstances, and fix our eyes on Heaven.  Remember, the glories of Heaven will far outweigh all the afflictions we face in this life.  "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).

Cleason Martin - Stratton, ON