One of the hardest things to do in our lives is to focus on what is not seen. We live in a world where we are so dependent on physical evidence to prove that something exists or happened that we forget that life is bigger than just ourselves, or that there is a whole other world that is “unseen” to us in our current nature. In 2 Corinthians 4:18, Paul tells the church in Corinth that we do not focus on what is seen, because it is temporary, but we focus on the unseen because its eternal. Wow! What sense does that even make? To understand this we need to look back in scripture.
For example: Noah, here is a man that is living in a world at a time that has never seen rain and one day he gets a word from God to build a boat because God is going to pour out His wrath on the earth and destroy everything due to the sin and corruption of man. God shares that He will destroy everything by flood waters from the heavens. Now Noah has to put his faith and trust in what God just shared with him, he has to focus on the unseen, remember it has never rained from the heavens up to that point in history. Think about the ridicule Noah must have endured, building this boat and it was not just any boat, this boat was massive. What about Abram? He receives a word from God to pack up his family and move to a land he knows nothing about or has ever seen. Both of these men trusted God and what His instructions were to them and they focused on what was not seen and were obedient too God’s holy direction.
Myself, I can think back to serving early on in the ministry in the church and at the time our pastor had just resigned and there were a lot of decisions to make with leadership and direction or was it time for me and my family to move on to a different church. Right after a staff meeting, we were all praying on the altar and I specifically asked God, “Is it time to move on?”. I remember that moment just like yesterday. The word I received from God was “No, stay the course and be obedient to Me, for I am not done with The Rock Church.” Even though at that moment it did not make any sense to me, to continue serving in ministry and continue operation of The Rock Church, God was not done. Ultimately all of us remaining on leadership stayed on and continued the ministry. To this day I have always believed in the original vision of The Rock Church, I believe God’s divine hand has been on the church since the beginning, and God still has His hand on The Rock Church. We may not fully understand where God is leading us, but just as Paul stated to the church in Corinth we must not give up. This momentary light affliction is producing eternal weight in glory, so we must focus on what is unseen because the unseen is eternal( 2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
So no matter where you are at in ministry, know you are not alone, God is with you, you have brothers and sisters in Christ that are with you and no matter how hard or tough the situation is, remember what Paul said to the church in Galatia: “Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up” (Galatians 6:9). The scripture is God’s holy and divine word and we need to live by them and encourage each other with His holy word, and set our eyes on what is unseen.