What Matters Most

What Matters Most

The things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. 2 Corinthians 4:18

PAUL WROTE THIS WHILE DEFENDING HIS MINISTRY and reminding the Corinthians of the glories of the new covenant. The “things we see now” refers to the hardships and struggles he and other believers were going through, and it applies to every transient thing in this life—our bodies, homes, income, entertainment. But it is a particularly powerful statement about our troubles. We fix our eyes on the unseen because the seen doesn’t last. We cultivate our vision because we long to look into eternity and shape our own (and others’) experiences of it. We desire to pray for what matters most.

Too many people are absorbed in the next thing—what they need in their daily life to make it better, bigger, smoother, and more exciting. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with praying about that needed raise, that next vacation, that better job, or that crazy upcoming schedule. God is concerned with all our concerns; he wants us to share what’s on our hearts. But our hearts need to be expanded sometimes to include the fundamental needs of this world, the brokenness of the people around us, the emptiness of lives filled with things that don’t ultimately matter, the disorientation of a world gone astray. We need to live with eternal perspectives.

Above all, anchor your prayers in eternity. Root them in your relationship with a God who is looking at the big picture. Orient them around the things that matter most. Prioritize those dreams and longings and then leave the remaining space for those daily matters of comfort and convenience. Whether the people in your world realize it or not, they need someone talking to the Father about the gaping holes in their lives and the shape of their eternal experience. They need advocates before the throne, friends in high places, intercessors standing between them and the God who loves them and longs to be recognized by them. They need you to see the things that last forever and pray that their eyes would be opened to see them too.

The only way to get our values right is . . . to see things not in the light of time, but in the light of eternity.