Day 4: Renewed day by day
Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16).
Heavenly Father, You have shown us again and again that You are a God of renewal, a God of restoration, a God of replenishment. Even in the midst of adversity, we have hope, like Job, "All the days of my hard service, I will wait for my renewal to come" (Job 14:14).
The apostle Paul expressed this same hope and encouragement in his letter to the Corinthian church, Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16).
Father, we know that many today endure suffering in ways similar to the apostle Paul and his ministry companions. They are not free to express their faith—many risk much, lose much, and suffer much for the sake of following Jesus.
We pray for Your watchful eye on them. We pray that our prayers and ministrations would constantly surround them, sustain them, protect them. Give them strength, hope, and endurance.
We pray for others who may not have the same types of experiences as the apostle Paul and his companions, but who, too, may have times, in ministry as well as in life, when they are hard pressed, perplexed, persecuted or struck down (2 Corinthians 4:8). Help them to press on in faith—trusting in Your goodness and wisdom.
And we pray for yet even others who are struggling with wasting bodies, failing minds, or crushed spirits. You know, Father, all the daily struggles, the moment-by-moment challenges, and the constant frustrations for the afflicted. Fill them with hope and encouragement in Your promise that inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
We pray for caregivers who struggle along with those they tend. Give them strength, patience, and hearts that does not grow weary even through the stresses and the strain. Renew and replenish them.
We pray for those who are in government or private facilities—some with substandard levels of care. Oh, Lord, have mercy! Visit them in their distress, and work through us to alleviate their suffering.
O Father, help us to believe by faith what is difficult to understand by sight—that our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Corinthians 4:17). Until then, O Lord, in Your divine wisdom, You have given us Your treasure in jars of clay (2 Corinthians 4:7). And as You help us to persevere, and to overcome, the power is Yours, the glory is Yours.
Teach us to bear the stresses of age, pain, disease, and all the brokenness of this fallen world. Take us through the groanings of trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword with the assurance that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8: 35, 38-39).
Help us to fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. We thank You that we can look forward to the day when our "frail tent is folded"—when we shed these earthly bodies, when the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, when death has been swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54).
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