The Bible has a profound way of turning everything upside down on its head. Greatness is found in humility. The first will be last. Whoever loses his life will find it. Here in Romans 5 is no exception. Rejoicing in our sufferings. Here in the hard sayings of the Bible we find our greatest source of strength for living life as it comes to us, rather than living life hoping against reality for something else.
In many philosophies of life and religion the aim is to create new realities and to appease the ‘gods’ in order to obtain a preferred reality. In the Bible we learn a practical faith that makes lemonade out of life’s lemons. Rather than waiting for an altered reality we take the present one head on and redefine our win, and sometimes in the process we do actually change the reality.
In this instance suffering, which comes to everyone, is turned on its head. We look for the win. Suffering leads to perseverance, and perseverance leads to character, and character leads to hope. Our hope? Our hope is Christ, and he never disappoints us. He forgives us, he sets us free, he gives eternal life. Everything he has promised to do, he does. Thus our suffering in this light is part of our growth process in becoming more like him. It's not that we are told to enjoy life’s sorrows. It is that rejoicing, even during life’s difficulties, works to our benefit if we allow it to.
Hal Hester
Friday, January 30, 2009
Devotional Day 12
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1 comments:
Sounds like my problems have a purpose?
By: Anonymous on January 30, 2009 at 9:39 AM
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