You Can Thank Me Now

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen... 2 Cor. 4:18

Well, that's a hard thing to do. Basically see a thing that you can not see. That is what Paul is saying that we are to do.

But especially when you are facing trials and "troubles of many kinds" how can you even see past your own self, your own trials, your own broken-ness. All you can see is what you see, which is the trial right in front of you, which causes you to look completely inward.

This is the imagery that comes to mind. It is like you are in a tiny room that is so small you can't even take a step. The walls are mirrors all around you. It gives the illusion that it should be big, spacious and full, but in reality it is only reflecting your own image and situation over and over until you cannot look beyond yourself. You cannot see others. You cannot love others.

I am familiar with this room, I've been in it many times. There are many doors through which you can enter: pride, pain, self-pity, envy, selfishness, etc. But I have have only found one through which I can exit. The door of Praise.

And we can only praise God in our pain when we see what we cannot see. His goodness when our situation feels awful. His faithfulness when it seems like he left us. His purpose when it feels wasted. And it really just takes faith to be able to see these things. But I think when we ask him to help us see the unseen, his spirit will show us.

This morning I was praying about some trials I am facing right now. And I felt like this is what God said to me, "Later on you will thank me for this, so in the words of Drake, "You can thank me now." Literally, that's what I heard... haha God knows how to speak to me :)

Steven Furtick says, "There is always a story behind someone's glory, there is always a pain behind someone's productivity for Christ, there is always pruning behind someone's fruitfulness." And some how I think that can help us praise God in the trials that he allows us to face. Because he is using something temporary to do something eternal.

So if you're facing a trial right now, that is what you can see, but it is temporary. The fruit, the glory, the purpose is what you cannot see... but it's eternal. It carries eternal weight and value. And maybe there is a way that in believing that, you can actually see it... you actually begin to see what is unseen.

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Cor. 4:17-18

We can thank him now... for what we will thank him for later.