This light affliction

Have you ever felt completely overwhelmed and unsure whether you’ll ever come out the other side?

That is sometimes how I feel as a mum of 2 under 2. Mentally and physically exhausted, trying to split myself between two needy little people, doubting myself, wondering if I’m actually cut out for this, scraping through the day and then collapsing into bed.

And I’m sure it’s not only mamas of little ones that feel this way.

Perhaps you’re in a situation you don’t understand and can’t control; or faced with decisions and responsibilities you wished you didn’t have.

Situations where you wonder if they will ever end. When you will see the light at the end of the tunnel. Moments of crying out to the Lord in desperation- asking Him how to get through.

Seriously questioning whether we’ve got it in us to make it out to the other side. Longing for a breakthrough and not knowing when that will come.

Paul cuts through this cacophony of overwhelm and doubt in a verse that puts it all into perspective:

‘Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working in us a far more eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary but the things which are not seen are eternal’ (1 Corinthians 4:16-18).

What I love about this scripture is that it gives meaning to our suffering. Our ‘light affliction’ (no, it may not feel that way, but that is essentially what it is) will pass (again, it may not feel this way but it will - even if not until we enter glory!) is actually achieving in us something so precious and so much longer-lasting than anything that can be seen outwardly.

So, when my children are both crying at the same time, my house is a mess, I haven’t managed to shower all day, dinner is fish fingers (again) and I question if I will ever find more than 10 minutes to spend time with my husband, I know that my inward (wo)man is being renewed day by day.

As the psalmist puts it: ‘my flesh and my heart fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever’ (Psalm 73:26).

When your life seems to be falling apart, and you feel as though your flesh and your heart are failing - whether you’re walking through an incredibly painful season, or just trying to keep going in the overwhelm of the day-to-day, know that this is accomplishing in you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. (2 Corinthians 4:17).

This light affliction will pass. Our destiny in eternity will not, because God is our portion forever.