Heaven Land Devotions - Fortitude Makes The Heavenly Crown

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Yesterday I was having a kind of down-day. It was gloomy and overcast. I could not shake myself out of it, even with several attempts at prayer. As I was reading the word I came across this verse in 2 Corinthians 10:10:

"For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible."

I continued to read on but I kept boomeranging back to that verse and knew it was something God wanted me to meditate on. I then was compelled to do some research on it which gave me such a deeper understanding of what God was shining His light on.

According to Tyndale and Wycliffe about Paul: "he had a small and contracted body, somewhat crooked and bowed, a pale face, looked old, and had a little head; he had a sharp eye; his eyebrows hung downwards; his nose was beautifully bent, somewhat long; his beard thick and pretty long; and that, as the hair of his head, had a sprinkling of gray hairs."

The “contemptible speech” meant literally, speech of no value; counted as of nothing, referring to a weak voice. Many said his presence had the look of one infirmed. It is as though he felt that his appearance was against him. The impression of one who was acutely sensitive."

We think about a man whose outward appearance and voice denoted weakness. The appearance of his body as infirmed. But this man is the one whom God chose to write the very letters we live by in the New Testament.

Do you feel weak? Do you feel as though your appearance is not good enough? That you do not measure up? Consider Paul. He says, "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ."

Never equate any outward appearance as the qualifications of those you listen to, or yourself to be listened to. "The outward man perishes, and the inward man is being renewed day by day." The Lord lifted me up and refreshed my soul and strengthened me with strength in my soul.

"Bare heights of loneliness...a wilderness whose burning winds sweep over glowing sands, what are they to Him? Even there He can refresh us, even there He can renew us." -Amy Carmichael