Dying

www.bible.com/1713/2co.4.16.csb

A little but every day, in such small increments that we don’t notice it, we are dying. Our bodies were never designed to live forever. Not even in the perfection of Eden, even the bodies of Adam and Eve needed to be sustained by the fruit of the Tree of Life. This same Tree stands in the Heavenly City at the end of Revelation, where it says explicitly that the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations (peoples, ethnicities). Of course, in that realm there will be more mire crying, sin, or pain either. Not so here.

Paul acknowledges this in this 2 Corinthians passage. We are always dying a little bit. But we are also being renewed day by day in the inner man. For every bit we lose externally, we are being built up into an inheritance that cannot fail internally. We are destined for greater things that this world, which is why we have hope. There are no things on this world that are so dear that we will not find better in the world to come.

No where do I find this verse more applicable than in hospital chaplaincy, where I could quote this verse all day to every patient, both to explain why our body isn’t cooperating like it should, and also to explain that even in the midst of suffering, we still have hope, because this body isn’t all we have. We lay hold of by faith so much more.

And this is the encouragement I want to leave you with today. Don’t give up. Don’t belief God is done with you. For He who began a good work in you will see it to completion. He will finish His work in you. But you must wait on His work, while you work out your salvation with fear and trembling, knowing what God it is we serve.

Lord, thank You for saving me. Thank You for rescuing me from this body of sin. I know these parts will fail. I know it is appointed for man once to die, and after that the judgment. Thank You for offering me faith in the midst of my failure, so at the day of judgment, I may stand before You covered by the blood of Jesus, and clad in His innocence. I pray that every day I work will be testimony of my faith in You. In Your Name I pray, Amen.