Thought for March 5th. “RENEWED DAY BY DAY … “

How essential it is that we are renewed day by day. Just as our body needs physical food – so does our mind. This is one of the points in Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians. His life is under a lot of stress, far more than others. He says, “we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted but not forsaken …” [4 v.8,9] Believers in some countries today are finding a lot of this applies to them.

These stresses are certain to become more widespread in our world – although probably of a different order. It will be our personal heart felt conviction of faith and belief that will enable us to endure – as it did with Paul. He was inspired by those who had gone before, such as the stirring convictions expressed in the Psalms we are currently reading. “Since we have the same spirit of faith”, writes Paul, “according to what has been written, ‘ I believed and so I spoke’ we also believe, and so we also speak …”

[v.13,14] Let us make sure we say the same! How positive Paul is! Let us also be positive. He states, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.” [v.16]

The foundation of our daily renewal is our meditative reading of God’s word – leading to prayer. In Paul’s day, as in ours, not all were ‘honest’ with what they read, they were not sufficiently conscious of the all seeing eye of God. In v. 2 we see how Paul makes the point, “ … we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God”

It is regular reading which brings God’s word into a balanced focus for our understanding, any uncertainties as to its meaning steadily disappear. God has revealed all things which it is needful for us to know in our mortal lives. We would long to know more detail of what lies ahead, but our chapter ends with soul stirring words, “… we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Make sure you are “renewed” today. .