Reflecting God - Embrace Holy Living from Wordaction of The Global Church of the Nazarene Publishing House in Kansas City, Missouri, United States "It is Clearly Winter" by Lori Miller for Monday, 13 February 2017 with Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:7-18

Reflecting God - Embrace Holy Living from Wordaction of The Global Church of the Nazarene Publishing House in Kansas City, Missouri, United States "It is Clearly Winter" by Lori Miller for Monday, 13 February 2017 with Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:7-18
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"It is Clearly Winter" by Lori Miller
2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it will be evident that such overwhelming power comes from God and not from us. 8 We have all kinds of troubles, but we are not crushed; we are perplexed, yet not in despair; 9 persecuted, yet not abandoned; knocked down, yet not destroyed. 10 We always carry in our bodies the dying of Yeshua, so that the life of Yeshua may be manifested in our bodies too. 11 For we who are alive are always being handed over to death for Yeshua’s sake, so that Yeshua’s life also might be manifested in our mortal bodies. 12 Thus death is at work in us but life in you.
13 The Tanakh says, “I trusted, therefore I spoke.”[2 Corinthians 4:13 Psalm 116:10] Since we have that same Spirit who enables us to trust, we also trust and therefore speak; 14 because we know that he who raised the Lord Yeshua will also raise us with Yeshua and bring us along with you into his presence. 15 All this is for your sakes, so that as grace flows out to more and more people, it may cause thanksgiving to overflow and bring glory to God.
16 This is why we do not lose courage. Though our outer self is heading for decay, our inner self is being renewed daily. 17 For our light and transient troubles are achieving for us an everlasting glory whose weight is beyond description. 18 We concentrate not on what is seen but on what is not seen, since things seen are temporary, but things not seen are eternal.
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It is winter. The landscape is barren, and the air is choked with dark fog. It is a bleak reflection of the reality of loss. In death as in winter, all is visually asleep. Nature is simply at rest. Still, even in winter, we are left to wonder what lies beneath the things that are visible to our eyes.
The apostle Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4 speak to the confidence that we have as believers to endure the harshest winter. It is the hope of the resurrection, the faith in things unseen that sustained the apostles in the midst of great trial. They knew with assurance that their suffering was temporary and that wrapped in the pain of death was the inexpressible gift of eternal life.
Buried beneath the layer of frost on the once green grass is the gift of grief, a gentle nudge of grace, the suggestion to sit in the arms of a loving God with the assurance that, out of pain, something new will be born. For those who believe, this season will not overshadow the exceptional seasons that most surely will come.-------
Hymn for Today: "It is Well, It is Well with My Soul" by Horatio G. Spafford
1. When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, 
when sorrows like sea billows roll; 
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, 
It is well, it is well with my soul. 
Refrain: 
It is well with my soul, 
it is well, it is well with my soul.
2. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, 
let this blest assurance control, 
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate, 
and hath shed his own blood for my soul. 
Refrain: 
It is well with my soul, 
it is well, it is well with my soul.
3. My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! 
My sin, not in part but the whole, 
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, 
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! 
Refrain: 
It is well with my soul, 
it is well, it is well with my soul. 
4. And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, 
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll; 
the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, 
even so, it is well with my soul. 
Refrain: 
It is well with my soul, 
it is well, it is well with my soul.
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Thought for Today: Genesis 8:22 So long as the earth exists, sowing time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”
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Please Pray: That many people in the Ukraine will come to know Yeshua the Messiah and receive the fullness of the Ruach HaKodesh.
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