Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our writer today is Arthur Jackson, and the devotional is titled Tired Tents.

The Tent is Tired.

Those were the words of my friend Paul who pastors a church in Nairobi, Kenya.

Since 2015, the congregation has worshipped in a tent-like structure. Now Paul writes,

Our tent is worn out and it's leaking when it rains. My friend's words about their tent's

structural weaknesses remind us of the

Apostle Paul's words regarding the frailty of our human existence. Outwardly, we are

wasting away. While we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened. Though the awareness of our

fragile human existence happens relatively early in life,

we become more conscious of it as we age.

Indeed, time picks our pockets.

The vitality of youth surrenders reluctantly to the reality of aging.

Our bodies, our tents, get tired. But tired tents need not

equate to tired trust. Hope and heart need not fade as we age. Therefore we do not lose heart,

the apostle says. The one who has made our bodies has made himself at home there through his

spirit. And when this body can no longer serve us, we'll have a dwelling not subject to breaks

and aches. We'll have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven.

Hear the Word of the Lord, from 2 Corinthians, 4, verse 16 through chapter 5, verse 5.

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.

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