"But for a Moment"

It's maybe not the most hopeful-sounding hope, but on dark hard days at the end of long hard months, it is one of the things that I hold onto.  It is one of the things that I think "hope" consistently refers to in the Bible.

This cannot last forever.  And the most I experience of all of this yucky temporary stuff is this lifetime.  The hard, the pain, the tears, the waiting, the not knowing how it will turn out - will be washed away and redeemed.  If not tomorrow, then at least at the end of our earth.  Jesus comes back, rules righteously, defeats the adversary, and re-creates the world with no death nor sorrow nor crying.

God has been able to sustain me and my hope these long months.  It is He who will sustain me each day as long as I must.  It is He who has promised that the End is good.  The End is more glorious than the sufferings are heavy.

"Therefore we 

do not 

lose heart. 

Even though our outward man is perishing, 

yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, 

is working for us 

a far more exceeding 

and eternal 

weight of glory, 

while we do not look at the things which are seen, 

but at the things which are not seen. 

For the things which are seen are temporary, 

but the things which are not seen are 

eternal." 

~ 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

As a friend reminded me this week,

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time 

are not worthy 

to be compared with the glory 

which shall be revealed in us. 

For the earnest expectation of the creation 

eagerly 

waits 

for the revealing of the sons of God." 

~ Romans 8:18-19