When I served as a missionary, I carried with me a brown and yellow backpack I had since the 8th grade. It was functional, but it showed the marks of time. The top handle had broken off back in high school, and the zipper to the main compartment only zipped from one side. There were also some rips and fraying straps that gradually grew worse. By all outward appearance, it was an unimpressive backpack, but as I trekked through the countryside and shared the good news in villages and market towns, this broken bag was given a very valuable task—to carry God’s Word. It would always carry a few Bibles in it that I would give to people who wanted to learn more about the living God and the salvation He offers through Jesus.
In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul contrasts our mortality with the eternal treasure we carry with us. He describes Christians as fragile clay jars that contain a priceless treasure—the good news of eternal life in Jesus! But he goes even further to tell us that the resurrection power of Jesus is also at work within our mortal bodies, despite the outward decay we experience in them. Our outward trials showcase an inward resilience that only God could produce, and so we display the life, death, and resurrection of King Jesus even in our frailty as we persevere through suffering with steady hope in what He has promised us! So, I say with Paul, dear brothers and sisters, “We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day!”
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Mike