Let the first step on your path to God be that of faith. Take the proverbial leap of faith that by your faith, you have obtained peace and right standing with God through Jesus Christ. Take hold of that faith, and let it take hold of you.
Once that faith is in place, strengthened by the surrounding grace of God, you will be ready to face unshaken, whatever may come in your service to God and love. Paul puts forward what to expect, in one of the most important promise passages in the Bible:
“Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom 5:1-5).
Paul wants us to boast in the hope of sharing God’s glory, as revealed and offered to us in Christ Jesus. We are even to boast about the sufferings that may come in service to the Lord. Why? Because such suffering, with the hidden upholding of the Spirit, will produce endurance, and endurance will lead to character. Then in a kind of circling back, character will produce hope. And this hope will not disappoint us or fade away, because God’s love will be poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, given to us, as we persevere in hope.
As Paul elsewhere attests, “For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen?” (Romans 8:24). While you cannot see hope, you can definitely feel it giving fresh strength to your heart and soul. Believe in that hope!
Even with hope, suffering will nevertheless visit us all. Essential to maturing in faith is learning to withstand such hardships. That includes the faith that suffering will generate endurance. Truth is, without suffering we cannot develop endurance. And endurance lays the foundation of character. Here I think of the elderly persons I served as a pastor who were members of the “greatest generation.” They suffered through the Depression and World War II; yet they endured. In so doing, they attained a quiet strength of character, moral fortitude and clarity about what truly matters in life.
As you pray this Scripture, ask the Holy Spirit to pour God’s love into your heart. Through God’s love and the hope that it generates, you will be able to endure what comes with the faith conviction that you are destined to share in the glory of God.
It is no wonder that Paul closes out his great letter to the Romans, with this hope-infused benediction on hope: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).
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