In a recent email correspondence from Clay Jones, one of my professors at Biola University in California, he shared a practice that he and his wife, Jean E., have been doing for many years that really caught my attention. Basically, according to Professor Jones, every night, before they go to bed, they recite encouraging verses, most often on eternity, and then pray together. And then he shared one of their favorite verses that I believe every Christian should memorize and meditate on.
These verses, (2 Corinthians 4:16-18, ESV), read as follows: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
The phrase that really caught my eye is: “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” As I began to meditate on just what is “an eternal weight of glory,” my mind, as a former banker, thought of the concept of compound interest. Literally if you invested, say $1,000 at 3% interest, and left it in the bank for say 500 years, your future descendants could literally claim many billions of dollars.
But it even gets better than this for when we show obedience to God by investing in His Kingdom, and do as (Matthew 6:20) says: “But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal,” we literally guarantee ourselves an investment which has eternal compounding.
We are told in (2 Corinthians 4:17) when we endure the momentary light afflictions in our lives, by being obedient to God’s Word, we will see this investment in the Lord’s work producing for us, “…an eternal weight of glory…” Imagine having a bank account which has as its value, “an eternal weight of glory.”
My friends when trials get you down realize that they are only temporary and are often a tool God uses to allow you the privilege to trust Him to pull you through and thus bring Him glory through your endurance. And when we glorify God through our actions He makes a glory deposit in our heavenly bank account – what an exciting thought!
When (Colossians 3:2) tells us to: “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth,” we need to spend more of our time thinking about eternity for that is where we will travel to when we pass from death to life. This doesn’t mean we forget about our earthly responsibilities but let’s carry them out with an eternal perspective in mind. By the way another one of Professor Jones’ favorite passages is (Colossians 3:1-4).
Professor Jones is definitely on to something when he asks us to spend more time thinking about eternity. I for one will be adopting his nightly habit – I hope you will too.