”We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed.” — 2 Corinthians 4:8 (NIV)
This whole summer we have been learning to sit. We sat down beside Mary at the feet of Jesus and heard Him name the one thing. We opened empty hands and let the God of hope fill us. We rose to serve and learned to let God give the growth. We traded “Am I allowed?” for “What would love do?” And last week we stood at the graveside with two grieving sisters and heard that the sadness is real — but the sting is gone.
There is one more thing this Mary-and-Martha road asks of us before the season closes. Not another task. A place to put our eyes.
Paul is writing to people under real weight, and he does not pretend it away. Listen to how plainly he stacks it up: “We are hard pressed on every side… perplexed… persecuted… struck down” (2 Corinthians 4:8–9). Read slowly, friend, because he does not stop mid-sentence. To each pressure he answers back: hard pressed, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned. Struck down, but not destroyed. The trouble is true. And it is not the last word over you.
How does he carry all of it? He tells us in the same breath: “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” (v18). That is the whole secret of an endurable life. Not pretending the hard thing isn’t hard. Not gritting your teeth until you feel strong. Just this — where your eyes rest.
Because what you look at is what you will believe. Fix your gaze on the pile of pressures, and every one of them will feel final. Lift your eyes to the One who is working inside all of it, and the same pile becomes, in Paul’s astonishing words, “light and momentary troubles… achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all” (v17). Not because the troubles are small. Because the glory is so much larger.
Maybe you are tired this week. Maybe you have been doing the next right thing for so long that you cannot remember the last time it felt light. Hear this gently: you do not have to see the whole road. You only have to take one more step, one more day, with your eyes on Him. God is at work in what you cannot see. And He will be praised in it.
So before this season of sitting ends, do the one thing it was always teaching you. Lift your eyes. Not to your circumstances, which are loud and temporary. To your God, who is quiet and eternal and nearer than the trouble. Hard pressed — but held. Struck down — but never, ever abandoned.
Fix your eyes on Him, and keep walking.
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This post is part of the At His Feet, In His Service journey — a Mary and Martha walk into rest and mission, for women who love God and are weary of running on empty. This Tuesday night is our final gathering of Summer at His Feet, and I would love for you to be there as we close this season together. Whether you have walked every week with us or you are just finding this today, there is room for you — and the community stays open long after Tuesday, because no one was meant to fix their eyes on Him alone. Come walk it with us at https://awakewomensministry.com.