Hope in Hardship

Three steps to hope in hardship

In the past, we’ve discussed the need to understand the perspective of those who reject biblical truth and to speak the truth to them in love. Today, let’s consider a related factor.
Writing on the subject of his persecutions,

Paul stated: “We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16–18).

Paul learned that living for heaven while on earth brings purpose and hope to temporal challenges. How do we do this?

One: Seek to honor God in all we do.

Paul continued: “Whether we are at home [with God] or away, we make it our aim to please him” (2 Corinthians 5:9).

“Aim” means “to earnestly aspire to something”; “please” translates a Greek word meaning “to find favor in the eyes of.”

Paul’s passionate, all-consuming commitment was to live constantly in light of the fact that God was watching him and therefore to please him with all he did.

Two: Live today for eternal reward.

The apostle added: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (v. 10).

What we receive in heaven will far outweigh its cost on earth.

Three: Help others choose truth.

Paul concluded: “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others” (v. 11). Every person we know deserves to know the God we know.

“The first page of a never-ending story”

The time to decide we will stand for Jesus against opposition is before opposition comes. Christians living in Cuba prior to the Castro revolution did not know they would face the persecution that continues even today. Christians living in China a few years ago did not know that their government would become so oppressive.

Even if our culture experiences a spiritual awakening that reverses our moral trajectory, it is still true that the best way to live this day is to be ready for eternity today.

Billy Graham explained his life simply: “My home is in Heaven. I’m just traveling through this world.”

C. S. Lewis believed that “our life on earth is the first page of a never-ending story.”