Imagine that I dump 10,000 plastic eggs in your
back yard. I assure you that inside one of those
hollow eggs is a check for $1 Million dollars
with your name on it. Would you get
discouraged if you opened the first 100 eggs
without finding the check? How about the first
1000 eggs? Of course not! You'd just keep
opening those eggs, just waiting for the moment
when you'd find the check.
Paul knew the meaning of the word "suffering."
He had been beaten, stoned, imprisoned,
shipwrecked, starved, and rejected. And yet Paul
said that his sufferings were nothing compared
to the glory that would come. In other words,
Paul had opened a lot of empty eggs, but he
never gave up or got discouraged. He believed
that something great was in his future - God's
glory revealed in him.
Perhaps it feels to you as if your life has been
nothing but empty eggs. You've already opened
9900 of them and you're not sure you've got
the will to go on. Let me encourage you today.
Don't give up. I don't want to trivialize the
challenges you are facing, but I do want to help
you put them into perspective. They are only
temporary, and God has something much
greater in store for you. Compared to the glory
that will be revealed in us one day, our suffering
doesn't merit discouragement.
Hang on. Don't give up. Keep going. One day
God will replace your discouragement with
incomparable glory!
"I consider that our present sufferings are not
worth comparing with the glory that will be
revealed to us." (Romans 8:18).