The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon.

“We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

—2 Corinthians 4:18

Our nature as humans is to focus on what we can see, but our call as Christians is to focus on what we cannot see—on Christ, his promises, the Word, our eternity with him, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self–control.

When the things we can see dictate our hopes and our fears, we’re allowing ourselves to be tossed by transient waves. The seen things will rise and fall constantly in this life, but the unseen things will matter through eternity after everything that we can see has passed away.

When the seen things begin to draw us in, whether it’s putting our hope in them, falling into despair over loss, or luring us into sin, remember all they can offer is as fleeting as a wave on the ocean shore . . . as changeable as the shape of a cloud as it passes overhead, and as uncertain as the wind before a storm. No circumstance is forever; moths and rust corrupt and thieves break in and steal (Matthew 6:19).

Living this truth is so freeing. We don’t have to bow to the fickle whims of the world; there is no keeping up with the Joneses.

The unseen things cannot be taken from us by any earthly authority (Galatians 5:23); they are our only true possession and inheritance.

Our lives are guaranteed to have eternal meaning no matter what our external, visible circumstances look like when we live them out with character through the Holy Spirit.

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