What if I were to tell those of you who are believers in the
Lord Jesus Christ that your greatest occupational duty or job, if you will--the
one that will be the most rewarding, most fun, most adventuresome, most
interesting, most exciting, and really thrilling with absolutely no negative
downside whatsoever—I mean it will be absolutely perfect in every way and in
fact will get better every day—is being prepared for you right now, even as I
speak? And what if I were to tell you that you are being prepared
for this job, this really awesome responsibility and in fact great occupation
through your suffering, trials, afflictions, loneliness, heartaches, pain,
grief, and sin battles? Would you believe me?
Well—believe it or not this is what the Bible teaches in 2
Corinthians 4:16-18 where the apostle Paul makes the point that God is using
our afflictions, pain, and suffering to produce for us an eternal weight of
glory. Essentially, what Paul is pointing out is that . . . .As believers, the secret to not losing heart and becoming
discouraged with our troubles, afflictions, heartaches, failures, suffering,
pain, and grief is knowing that God is using these very things to not only
prepare us for Heaven but specifically to be able to enjoy heaven to the hilt. And it is this enjoyment of heaven that Paul refers to as an
eternal weight of glory.
We don’t use the word “weighty” very much anymore but back
when we did it had the idea of something important that had a certain heaviness
to it in the sense of a weighty responsibility, a hefty obligation, an
important duty, and even an all-consuming occupation. So what Paul is saying is that through our
afflictions God is preparing us some kind of weighty responsibility and full-time
all-consuming occupation, if you will.
And then he qualifies this eternal weight by describing it as having
something to do with "glory”.
The word “glory” from which we get “glorious” is referring
to that which is full of splendor, beauty, brilliance, grandeur, magnificence,
and wonder so as to be fully marveled at and enjoyed with intensity. It is what Jesus can’t wait for us to see,
experience, and enjoy in John 17:24.
"Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may
be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved
me before the foundation of the world."
And if our enjoying His glory is what Jesus is looking
forward to then it must be big. To see
and enjoy God’s glorious presence and His glory in all that He has prepared for
us in Heaven will be the adventure, pleasure, and purposeful occupation of an
eternal lifetime. Here's a dismal
illustration in comparison to what Jesus wants for us but it at least gets you
thinking along His line of thinking. Can
you imagine getting a job at say Disney World and the boss tells you the only
thing you have to do—your primary responsibility—you’re duty and the very reason you get up every morning is to come
here and enjoy me and everything that is in this park to the best of your
ability. That is what I am paying you
for.
And what the Bible wants us to see is that God is using our
afflictions, our trials, our suffering, and yes—our pain to refocus our
spiritual eyes, senses, and perceptions on what is real, valuable, and eternal
as opposed to what is transitory, fleeting, inferior, and really nothing more
than fruitless joys in comparison. That
is what He means in verse 18 when He tells us that what we can see and perceive
and comprehend on this earth and in this life are temporary but what we can’t see
and comprehend yet, because it is simply beyond our ability to see, perceive,
comprehend, and let me add—enjoy yet—is eternal.
So, our momentary light affliction of living life in a
sin-ridden, sin-loving, sin-sick, sin-afflicted, ever dying and suffering world
as people who are afflicted in every way, perplexed, persecuted, and struck
down is preparing us, who, whether we realize it or not are in love with this
world and all it has to offer, for heaven so that we can fully enjoy it. They are producing within us a taste and a
desire for something far superior and far more enjoyable than anything we have
ever known or imagined and this enjoyment of heaven is described as an eternal
weight of glory because it will not be a half-hearted, temporary, fleeting,
momentary, enjoyable diversion from pain or interruption of life’s routine
boredom.
In essence, what God is doing in all of our pain and
afflictions is rewiring us for glory.
Because in Heaven that is what life is all about—enjoying the intense, unending,
ever-increasing, tangible, actual, palpable, rapturous, and real pleasure of
God's glory which will unrelentingly capture your full attention and
appetite—once God has rewired you to be able to take it all in.
