Hope Rising

Life can be tough! How are we to overcome these difficulties? Living in a “make-up” culture we tend to cover up our problems either due to fear of what others may think or because we have believed the lie that we should just hide as to not bother those around us. God’s word has given us direction and encouragement that will help us endure the difficulties of life. Listen and discover how hope can rise up even in the midst of the storms of life.

^5 For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. ^6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”^[a] made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

^7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ^8 We are hard pressed on every side,but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ^9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. ^10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ^11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. ^12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

^13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.”^[b] Since we have that same spirit of^[c] faith, we also believe and therefore speak,^14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself.^15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

^16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ^17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ^18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:5-18