Renewing Day By Day

My wife and I got away last weekend taking a few days off, being selfish and doing what we wanted to do. I’m told it’s a healthy thing to do and I have to admit I do feel somewhat renewed upon returning home. We went to a NASCAR race in Ft. Worth; auto racing is one of my quiet passions shared by my wife. While in the neighborhood we got a chance to have dinner one night with relatives who live close by and we also took an extra day traveling a few miles down the road to visit some friends we hadn’t seen in many years. Well, while sitting in the stands watching the race in the beautiful Texas sunshine I did exactly what I warn my children not to do, I cooked to a bright red. Oh yeh, forehead, nose and arms. I haven’t done that to myself since childhood. A week later and no one would be any the wiser what I had done to myself, because the body has that amazing ability to regenerate and renew that which has been damaged, maybe not to it’s original pristine condition, but pretty close. Take a few days. It’s good for the mind.
There is a grave marker in Bridgeport, Connecticut that reads, “AUNT FANNY- SHE HATH DONE WHAT SHE COULD”. Fanny Crosby was blind from six weeks of age because of mistreatment by a man claming to be a doctor. Yet she wrote more than 9000 hymns such as: “Blessed Assurance”; “All the way My Savior Leads Me”; “I Am Thine Oh Lord”; “Jesus Keep Me Near The Cross”; “Praise Him, Praise Him”; “Rescue The Perishing”; “To God Be The Glory” and “Tell Me The Story Of Jesus” to name a few. Although blind, she was the guest of six presidents and a personal friend of Grover Cleveland. Her 9000 hymns were set to music by every popular American tunesmith of the nineteenth century and they still bless the church of Jesus Christ in our day. It has been said, “It doesn’t take much of a man to be used of God. It just takes all of him.”
[2 Corinthians 4: 13-18] (NIV) Paul and Timothy write to the church in Corinth in the first person, describing themselves in their walk of faith, encouraging the reader, then and now, to follow their example. They talk of both the physical body and the inward, spirituality of man. Even though God has designed a marvelous regenerative body for us to use, I don’t think anyone has to explain that one day the physical body is going to cease to function due to trauma or disease. Young or old we have no idea when this will occur, but as in the case of Fanny Crosby, the condition of our body makes no difference to God. Think on what the writers said: “…do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” Baptized in Christ we have received the Holy Spirit who watches over our spirit as we strive to live righteously, following the example and teachings of the Apostles of Christ. We are a sinful lot, even as baptized believers, causing damage to our spirit with doubt and selfish pride, but isn’t it great to know that through the grace of God our spirit is being renewed daily. The writers also say: “For our light (life) and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” We have the right to decide for ourselves how we will conduct our lives, but as believers of God’s word, growing in the knowledge of His will for mankind, dealing with our troubles in a godly manner will bring about eternal glory. “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is not seen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” God loves you.