The end of the beginning ( 2 Corinthians 4 v 13 -18 )

Every year I have to take my car in for its yearly MOT,that is a compulsory check to see if my car is roadworthy .We are all growing old, most of us have to have regular tests for our eyes,test for blood pressure,diabetes,and so many things, I think I'm fighting a losing battle,in a sense we all are.I'm in no way saying we should give up on life for it is a gift from God and it is precious,so we well take the pills, watch our diet,and keep getting those regular MOT's. It is the apostle Paul who writes,'Therefore we do not loose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away,'  (2 Corinthians 4 v16)  It is so easy to loose heart yes even as Christians,say what's the point?, well the context in which Paul wrote those words is very positive, that there is a work of the Spirit going on within us renewing  us everyday,one writer puts it like this,'Even though on the outside, it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside,where God is making new life, not a day goes by without His unfolding grace'.Yes outwardly we are perishing, Denny writes,' The decay of the outward msn in the Godless is a melancholy spectacle, for it is the decay of everything'.Paul encourages us to not focus on that which is temporal,he especially emphasises troubles,whatever they are , their is a better day coming for every child of God.a new body,a new eternal home,a new eternal existence

                                'Bruce Milne writes,'What is life?Where is it going?What about death?

                                 and the beyond ? The sun of conviction breaks through our chronic

                                 unbelief , and in that instant we know that we are more than dust, that

                                  life is larger than the boundaries of this terrestrial, and that our death

                                  will not be the end of us,but merely the end of the beginning.'