Unseen things—they are the great realities, the ultimate things of life. Because Paul had his eyes fixed on these things, he could say: “I never lose heart; though my outward man decays, my inner man is renewed day after day. The slight trouble of the passing hour results in a solid glory past all comparison, for those of us whose eyes are on the unseen” (vv. 16-18, Moffatt). In the next verse he declares: “I know that if this earthly tent of mine is taken down, I get a home from God, made by no human hands, eternal In the heavens” (5: 1, Moffatt).

Here was a far view. Paul set his thinking in the large context of eternity. He looked beyond the trials and sufferings of this present time, saw past them, an eternal heritage which they could not spoil. This view and its concomitant faith inspired in him a great confidence--a confidence that rested, not on the transient things of earth, but on the eternal verities.

The man who has this confidence, has something that will save him from pessimism and the bitter feeling of futility; something that will make him feel that life is good and worth living; something that will give him the stamina to endure reverses and disappointments without losing heart; something that will sustain him in time of trial and trouble, in the hour of affliction and sorrow; something that will keep his heart up when the times are dark and desperate; something that will inspire him to high and noble endeavor and make him a dynamic power for good; something that will keep him going and keep a song in his heart in life’s darkest hours; something that will take away the fear of death and enable him to approach the grave in the joy of victory.

The secret of great and triumphant living lies in being related to the ultimate things of life—the things which link us to God and the eternal. The bodies we love and the things we have made with our hands, are destined for the dust. Seeing everything about us changing and going back to the original elements, it is reassuring and inspiring to know that the invisible world is not conditioned by time nor affected by it. To make life worth while, we must, by faith, be linked with that world and live as immortals.