In God's love letter to us, in the ancient holy book called the Bible, we see our spiritual ancestor Paul talking about sufferings. We usually want to avoid sufferings and either pretend they don't exist, or try to act like everything is fine. Yet, when we acknowledge our sufferings for what they are, and what sufferings are intended to do for us, it changes our whole perspective on sufferings.
One of our ancient spiritual advisors once said, in a letter he wrote to the people of a local community, "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:1–5).
In these few sentences this man named Paul speaks of peace and faith and grace and rejoicing, and sufferings and endurance and character and hope, but let's narrow our focus to rejoicing and sufferings. This holy book says that we are to rejoice in our sufferings. Now, this is easier said than done, but if God, our main spiritual advisor, says to do this then it must be important. If God, who created us and knows us better than we know ourselves, says to do this it must benefit us in some way, because God has our best interests at heart.
It says our sufferings produce endurance. When we look at the word "sufferings," it basically means anything that is causing strife or pressure in our lives. That can be a broad variety of things. This means this word applies to many areas of our lives. So, whatever sufferings you are going through today, they can produce endurance if you let them. What is endurance? Endurance is that inner drive that long-distance runners have. Whether you run or walk this still applies to you, because in this message of hope it applies to your inner endurance that goes beyond the physical realm. It steps into the spiritual and mental and emotional realm.
Endurance is what gives you the inner strength to go the extra mile or the extra step and finish what God's Son Jesus Christ has called you to do as a believer in Jesus. It gives you the inner strength to finish going to school if that's what God wants for you. It gives you the strength to get free of addictions. It gives you the strength to go back to that job that provides food for your family. It gives you the inner strength to speak about what Jesus has done for you, even when talking to people that are mad at Jesus or the church.
Then this endurance builds character within you. Character is what makes you who you are when no one is looking. Character is what defines you when the tough times come. Character is what God is building in you until the day you die. We are never done building character and as we are building our character, this is what gives us hope for the future.
It is this hope that will not put us to shame. It is this hope that has been given to us because of what God has done by sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross for us and take away our shame that we have been born with. It takes away that shame that is associated with sin and condemnation. Only those who don't know Jesus are put to shame, but if you believe in Jesus you have access to this peace and faith and hope and love and endurance and character. This is what will heal your broken heart. This is what will take away your shame. This is what will take those sufferings and turn them into rejoicing and do a work in your heart that only God can do.
The Holy Spirit takes this love and pours it into our hearts through a supernatural means. It if came through natural means it would not last. It had to happen through the power of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Pouring His unconditional love into our hearts physically, spiritually, emotionally and mentally. God takes a negative such as sufferings and turns it into a positive to give us hope for our broken hearts. Take this hope and run with it to the finish line of life.
Our columnist Parry Stelter has written and published a book entitled A Word of Hope for My Aboriginal People. He also has a radio program broadcast on several Western Canada stations. Find the stations carrying his program on his website: http://www.wordofhopeministries.ca
