Seeing Hope.

Romans 5:2-5
2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

The key phrase that sticks out to me here is "we know that suffering produces perseverance." I'm constantly reminded of that. It's in our most difficult times that God molds us into who we are. If everything was hunky dory, how would we ever be changed? As much as we don't want to see hardship, it reveals our character to God and everyone else.

What do you think today's passage is all about? Rather than seeing it as one of suffering, I see it as a hopeful passage. I know it has the words "sufferings" in the passage. Just hear me out though. Our mind automatically correlates the words above to our sufferings. Is it because we deal with so much suffering in this temporary life? Is it because praising God in our times of pain is completely unreasonable? We must realize that our pain does not mean that God wants nothing to do with us nor does it mean that God enjoys seeing people suffer. I mean, look at Jesus and what he dealt with on the cross...

I mentioned the fact that God can make you strong after any given situation. In addition, he can make extraordinary realities stem from anything. Eventually, once you learn to suffer in Christ, you will end up placing your hope in him. He then responds by placing his hope in us, which is a direct result from his Holy Spirit.

May you be hopeful every single day!

Here's a beautiful song that ought to make you hopeful: "I Will Rise" by Chris Tomlin.



P.S. If you have trouble with the video stopping and starting, keep the video paused, and let it "buffer" (load) as it's called for a while. You will see the red bar along the bottom advance (speed depends on your Internet connection). Wait until that bar gets pretty far along (I'd say more than halfway) before you play the video and it shouldn't pause.