Romans 5:1-5 NIV
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.
In last week’s message and devotion we talked about dealing with suffering and trials, and in this week’s we’ll talk about growing in character through some of the hardships we face in life.
Have you ever wondered why some people, given the worst circumstances in life, seem to be able to rise above their challenges and respond to them with so much grace? A lot of this has to do with the strength of their character. It’s the strength of a person’s character that allows them to rise above challenges instead of crumble under them.
But that sort of character–the kind that can withstand challenges and deal with them gracefully–doesn’t just develop overnight! Character needs to be built up, and many times it’s built up during challenges.
Challenges can either make us bitter, or better. We will either grow up, or give up. And whether we go down one road or the other often depends on the choices we make in difficult situations.
In Romans 5, Paul describes suffering as producing endurance, character, and hope. This is definitely true, but I think our suffering can only produce good things if we make the right choices when we’re faced with difficult circumstances. Not every way we respond to challenges is healthy. Anyone who’s been in a conflict with another person probably knows that escalating the conflict is not a healthy way to move forward. In order for our challenges and suffering to produce hope in us, we really need to make the right choices!
If we really want challenges to produce hope in us, we need to make sure that in every challenge in life, we’re making an effort to get on the same page as God. We need to try to see things from God’s perspective. Find out where God is at in what we’re going through. Take time to hear God in the storm, and pause long enough to hear what He’s saying.
For most of 2019, we learnt and practiced hearing God. In terms of hearing God, it’s when we’re faced with challenges that the rubber really hits the road. It’s during tough times that we really need to receive from God, and have Him speak into our lives and situations.
A short exercise for practicing hearing God is in the announcements section of the Life-Spring email today. Try it, practice it. In it, you’ll find God making you into a more and more hopeful person. We can actually grow in the kind of faith and hope that can sustain us through the storms of life as we learn to hear God. Soon, we’ll find that we’re becoming the kind of people that even given harsh circumstances in life, can rise above because of the faith and hope that’s built up in us.