Light Afflictions

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

There are times when the only thing I can do is shake my head in wonder at the difficulties some people have experienced because of their faith in Christ. Paul is one of them. No one can accuse Him of being and “arm-chair” Christian!

His resume reads like this:

Five different times the Jews gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea…I have lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights. Often I have been hungry and thirsty and have gone without food. Often I have shivered with cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. (2 Corinthians 11:24-27)

When I read that, I think, “That guy was really put through the ringer.” How do you read it? Furthermore, how would you describe these things to others if they had happened to you? Would you complain about it? Would you accuse God of not being faithful to you? Would you invoke sympathy from your hearers?

Here’s how Paul, the guy who endured all these things, describes them:

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory… (2 Corinthians 4:17)

“Our light affliction,” you’ve got to be kidding! We would call those afflictions anything but “light.” But when those words come from the person who experienced all those things (let’s call him an authority on affliction), then there must be a different way to see the trials and difficulties we face in life.

So far in my life, the afflictions that I have encountered are extremely light in comparison to Paul’s “light” afflictions. I’m neither dismissing them nor ignoring them, but rather desiring to see them as Paul did; when compared to the reality of eternity, to the unending state of blessedness that awaits God’s people there, it’s practically nothing.

Our affliction is always light in light of eternity!