A friend shared his concern about his dad’s attitude. After being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, his dad has given up. He refuses to go for treatment and to the dismay of his family, he does nothing but sit around the house “waiting to die.” My friend is exhausted; every effort to help his dad has failed.
The Bible calls this problem “losing heart.” Fortunately there are several references to it in scriptures that help us understand how not to lose heart as we face life’s common hardships.
My favorite scriptures about not losing heart are two entire chapters: the fourth and fifth chapters of Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. In chapter three Paul uses one of his favorite words: “therefore.” He had been describing the glory of the ministry God had given him. Then he writes, “Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold.”
He begins chapter four with the same word: “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.” Sixteen verses later he uses the word again when he says, “Therefore we do not lost heart.” He uses the word “therefore” three more times in chapter five.
In searching for Paul’s solution to the losing heart problem, it helps to remember that a writer uses the word “therefore” to signal a logical conclusion based on what he has written earlier. So we shall look for the reasons Paul gives for making the declaration: we do not lose heart.
First, we see that Paul has acknowledged that hardships must be expected in our broken world. In chapter one he speaks of the hardships he had suffered in Asia. He says, “We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life….But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead….On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us” (1:8-10).
Here we see Paul’s conviction that in the midst of our trials, we have a God who cares for us, a God upon whom we can depend for the help we need. Shall we suffer? Yes. Christ suffered. We shall suffer. But God has given us a glorious hope that will sustain us.
Then, following his bold statement that “we do not lose heart” in chapter 4, verse one, Paul explains that through the mercy of God we who follow Christ “can see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God....For God….made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (4:4-6).
This understanding, Paul says, is “a treasure” in us, who are but “jars of clay,” to reveal that “this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” Paul reminds us that though we are frail vessels, we have the power of God within us.
This power enables us to declare with Paul: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (4:8-9). What glorious faith! Paul goes on to say that faith permits us to believe “that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead” has the power to raise us up also!
After declaring the reasons why we will not lose heart, Paul drives home his conviction with the awesome words: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (4:16-18).
This beautiful passage continually renews and strengthens my faith as I struggle with life’s troubles. Yes, they are temporary and are nothing compared to the glory that awaits me in the Father’s House. And yes, I need to only glance at what is seen but gaze with wonder at God’s eternal glory.
I urged my friend who is worried about his dad to embrace Paul’s strong faith for himself, and once he truly believed it, to share his faith kindly with his dad. Gently encourage him, I advised, to say about his illness, “Yes, I am perplexed, but not in despair; I am struck down, but not destroyed. Therefore, rather than give up, I will ask the Lord to help me say, I will not lose heart and I will use what days remain to be a blessing to my family and my friends!”
If you need to say, “Therefore, I will not lose heart,” say it. Say it out loud!
Say it and mean it! And believe me, the help you need is already with you! Claim it and stand your ground!