A worthy challenge

Friends,

Everything is important to God.
The reverse is also true: Nothing is unimportant to God.*

With this in mind, we are challenged ... and well-served ... to examine every thought, every action and every word. Measure them against this standard:

Philippians 2:3a [NKJV]
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit

It is truly a great challenge - worthy of energy and great enthusiasm. This passage challenges you and me to stop and think before speaking: are my words self-serving or will they encourage and edify another? These words call us to stop and think before acting: will my actions bring joy and comfort to my brother or sister, or are they meant to draw attention to myself?

To obey this passage is to imitate Christ Jesus and, in so doing, bring great joy to our Heavenly Father.

Be encouraged, Jose

* note: Man cannot function in this state, for when he tries, the result is the opposite. But God is not man. His abilities are not limited.

Temporarily

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 (NKJV)

To be a recipient of God’s blessings in life and for eternity, we may often encounter pain, persecution, discomfort, inconvenience, sufferings, rejection and tough/hard times. Tough and difficult enough to make us want to quit. But our Lord Jesus Christ gave us a divine example to emulate in His ultimate sacrifice for us at the Cross of Calvary. The eternal prize is bigger than the passing challenges of the present all put together.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Romans 8:18 (NKJV)

It is my fervent prayer that may we find the strength to always overcome the heat of the moment, while not missing the lessons and insights from every situation.

Be encouraged,

Afolabi