All About the Angle
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” — 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV).
In the darkest, hardest seasons of my life, it seemed as though each day was a battle that I did not want to fight, nor did I have the energy for. Often, I felt like that was all I would ever think about; my mind just a constant loop no matter how much I begged the Lord to quiet it. The mountain loomed over me, casting shadows of fear, doubt, anxiety, and restlessness. Recently, in the midst of it all, the Lord graciously gifted me with something I never even thought to ask for—a change in perspective. Nothing about my circumstances changed, but somehow, everything changed.
I have a note written in my Bible next to 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 that says,
“Faith is facing the facts without becoming discouraged by them, because we know that God is greater than whatever we are facing” (author unknown because I did not write it down, oops!).
I think many of us tend to confuse faith with an unwillingness to acknowledge reality. We convince ourselves that having enough faith means refusing to admit something is difficult, painful, or simply not going the way we hoped. But Scripture teaches that faith lets us face difficult circumstances with the confidence that what we see is not all there is.
In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul writes about the difficulties and suffering he and his fellow believers experienced. He says they are hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down, yet not crushed, abandoned, or destroyed (verses 8-9). Clearly, Paul was not pretending everything was fine! He was intimately familiar with suffering, disappointment, and hopeless circumstances. Yet, despite everything he had experienced, he declares: “Therefore we do not lose heart” (verse 16).
What do you mean, Paul? How do you not lose heart after literally describing all your suffering?
Paul continues, explaining that although we are outwardly wasting away, we are being renewed inwardly day by day. Our present troubles, though very real, are temporary in comparison with the eternal glory that awaits us. And then he tells us where to direct our attention: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen” (2 Corinthians 4:18, NIV).
Easy enough, right? Just look at what you cannot see! Geez…Paul definitely should not have been a therapist.
But think about it closely. “Fixing” our eyes on something requires an intentional decision about where we are going to look. We cannot simultaneously fix our attention on every possible thing demanding it (although, if you’re anything like me, you have probably tried!). We have to choose where we direct our focus. Paul encourages us to look beyond the circumstances immediately in front of us and remember the eternal realities that remain true, regardless of what we are currently experiencing.
There is another note in my Bible here (definitely written down from a sermon or podcast or something, so, again, credit to whomever credit is due!) that says something like this:
if we look at the world, we become distressed;
if we look within ourselves, we become depressed;
but if we look to Jesus, we can find rest.
Of course, I recognize that our emotional struggles are not always as simple as where we direct our attention, but I think there is an important spiritual truth here. When we become entirely consumed with what is happening around us or in our minds, it can be difficult to remember the promises of God. We begin measuring his goodness by the condition of our circumstances rather than remembering that his character remains unchanged in the midst of them.
“Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5, NIV).
David is always so honest—he does not deny the reality of weeping. He basically tells us he cries himself to sleep. What an emotionally intelligent and articulate guy! He does not suggest that grief or sorrow is incompatible with faith or that we should pretend our circumstances are much better than they are. He acknowledges that there will be seasons of sorrow, but he also reminds us that sorrow is not the end of the story.
The night is real, and so is the weeping that comes with it. But David directs our attention beyond that darkness to the rejoicing that is to come. And just as Paul encourages us to fix our eyes on what is eternal rather than temporary, David reminds us that our present sorrow is not all there is.
In Lamentations 3, after describing tremendous suffering, grief, and affliction, Jeremiah makes a conscious decision to remember something he knows to be true about God:
“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope. Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:21-23, NIV).
This is one of my absolute favorite passages in the Bible. Jeremiah wasn’t writing from a place of comfort or sunny circumstances. He was surrounded by utter devastation! And yet (we love that little word!), in the middle of his suffering, he deliberately calls to mind the faithfulness of God—not because that changes anything about the circumstances, but because it changes his perspective on them. God’s mercy never changes—but it changes everything for us.
I love how Scripture complements itself. David reminds us that rejoicing comes in the morning, and Jeremiah reminds us that God’s mercies are new every morning. That means that even when the night feels extraordinarily long or dark, we can be confident that God’s compassion is not limited to yesterday’s struggles. We don’t wake up to a depleted supply of his mercy. His faithfulness is not dependent on whether our circumstances improved as we cried through the night. His mercies are new because he is faithful. A fact that never changes.
Back to Paul—who tells us that inwardly we are being renewed day by day. Not all at once, not when our circumstances change, and not when we have managed to figure out the issue or plaster on a smile. Renewal is an ongoing work of God within us. Even when we cannot see any outward evidence that something is changing, he can still be working in ways we do not yet understand. God is capable of renewing us in the midst of the very things that are wearing us down.
What is happening within us may not always be visible in what is happening around us. This is precisely why we are encouraged to fix our eyes on what is unseen. Circumstances are temporary—but the power, presence, and promises of God are eternal.
Paul reminds us that “our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18, NIV).
The suffering we experience this side of eternity is real, but it pales in comparison to the eternal glory awaiting us in Christ. We may not know when the morning will come or what it will look like, but we can trust that the darkness we experience now does not change the faithfulness of the One who holds our future.
David points us to the rejoicing that follows the night of grieving; Jeremiah reminds us that God’s compassion is renewed toward us every morning; and Paul tells us that God is working on us inwardly day by day, renewing our hearts, minds, and spirits to be more like Jesus. None of these passages require us to deny the reality of our present circumstances. Instead, each encourages us to look beyond what we can presently see and remember the faithfulness of the God who is sustaining us.
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2, NIV).
We are called to view our temporary circumstances through the lens of eternity, rather than allowing our temporary circumstances to determine our view of God.
I think about this like standing at the bottom of a very tall mountain. From where you stand, it appears enormous, overwhelming, and pretty much impossible to climb over. But when you walk (or drive) away and see that same mountain from a distance, your perspective changes entirely. What once seemed to consume your entire field of vision becomes just one small part of a much larger landscape. And while we can only see the mountain standing in front of us, God sees the entire landscape. What appears insurmountable from our limited perspective is hardly an anthill to the One who created the mountains themselves!
Today, we can look beyond what is immediately visible and remember the eternal truths that remain. We can face reality without allowing it to consume our perspective. We can acknowledge our suffering while continuing to trust in God’s goodness. And we can allow him to renew us, day by day. We do not have to deny the darkness of the night to believe in the promise of the morning.
bytaylormcgee
