Wed. Oct 14
"THE INWARD MAN IS BEING RENEWED DAY BY DAY." (2CO 4:16 NKJV)
Work On The Inner You (2)
One day God sent the prophet Samuel to find someone to be Israel's next king. Samuel saw a very impressive-looking guy and thought, "This must be the one." But God, who measures with a different yardstick, said, "Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1Sa 16:7 NKJV). One of the criticisms Paul lived with, was people saying his looks weren't very impressive (See 2Co 10:10). His body wasn't just aging; it had been whipped, stoned, starved, beaten and locked in a cell. "It doesn't bother me much," he said, "it's what's inside that matters. Something's going on inside of me; it's like the opposite of what's happening outside. Outside I'm dying a little every day. Inside I'm coming to life, changing, getting stronger. Joy keeps bubbling up - even in prison. I keep getting more hopeful, even though I know my body's going to die soon. I keep loving people more, even the people who put me here. It's the strangest thing; I'm dying on the outside, bu inside I'm coming to life." Paul had mastered the inner game. His thoughts ran constantly heavenward. As an old man in prison he was more alive than he had ever been. So he wrote: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (Ro 8:35 NKJV). Well, trouble and hardship can win the outer game pretty easily. But there is a you in you, that no one can touch. That's the one you must pay attention to, for that's the game you can win!
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