John Bunyan, the English preacher and author from the 17th century, has much to say to us today. A man who suffered great persecution under a crackdown following the Act of Uniformity spent a great period of his life in prison for the gospel. In the later version of his autobiographical work, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, commenting upon 2 Corinthians 2:9 he says this
By this scripture I was made to see that if ever I would suffer rightly, I must first pass a sentence of death upon every thing that can be properly called a thing of this life, even to reckon myself, my wife, my children, my health, my enjoyment, and all, as dead to me, and myself as dead to them. The second was, to live upon God that is invisible, as Paul said in another place; the way not to faint, is to "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."
I struggle with what it means to daily "Live upon God that is invisible" - when I think of the things I do live upon, I shudder:
- Food - sometimes too much of it
- Stuff - always too much of it
- Friends
- Family
- Opinions - or "counsel" from others
- Reputation
- Success