When we think of hope I do not believe we think there is a process. I think we believe we have faith and that faith gives us hope. However, as I sit and read Romans this morning, chapter 5 and verses 1 through 5 I realized there is a process. We go through this process for our individual broken souls. I am thankful for this process because it begins with our sufferings! The things that weigh us down and keep us uncomfortable or feeling unworthy. It says that our sufferings will produce endurance. As Christians we are in this for the long haul. The whole war and not just a few battles. In the roller-coaster of life many of us realize we need endurance to deal with the heaviness that life brings. Whether you believe Jesus is your savior or not, life moves and presses forward.
The endurance is something I didn’t realize I had until reading this morning. My struggles have always been able to keep me fighting and pulling me down, which has made my endurance strong. When you fight and battle to not go under, fighting for your breath, your endurance is building and if you keep fighting you will not drown. However, it is with your belief that in that fight, Jesus won’t let your drown! When we battle in our lives with those transgressions done to us or done by us we are building our spiritual endurance. The next step is that endurance will produce character!
Character is a mighty powerful word and explains how we are as a human being. I remember a quote from Hall of Fame Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden which says, “Reputation is what people know about you and Character is what God knows about you!” I remember that hitting home because you want to be a man of integrity and someone who can be there and get things done for people. However, you want that to be genuine and authentic, you want that to come from your soul and not from your ego. Your reputation should not matter if your character is produced through the endurance of your sufferings. I know it is when I am alone and with God that he could condemn me for all the things I have done or have thought about doing!! He doesn’t he simply loves on me and sees my character of the man he created, the man of God he created and He knows I long for that. It is easy to fall into wanting a reputation as a man of God, but you better tread lightly because God doesn’t like the manipulation of his beloved. Our character comes from our endurance that we build from our sufferings. When we know that we have been through stuff we can realize, even in those tough situations, that others have been through stuff too! Much of which is why they act the way they do. It is in this that Character produces hope!
Hope is reached when we have nothing to hide from Jesus or God or the Holy Spirit. It is not that we can literally hide anything from them, but we choose to be selfish most of the time. Our hope comes from that character which is where God meets us at our core. There is nothing covered or hidden when we choose to surrender to Jesus all our brokenness. You see the scripture says that Hope does not disappoint because that is God’s love poured into us through the Holy Spirit given to us! In the moment of Justification when God takes our sin and gives us His righteousness is the moment our journey to Hope begins.
When you look at the world today, we must take this relationship into our darkness as humans. Suffering is producing endurance and we see that through the cases of Covid 19 spreading and taking lives and changing the normal of the world. This suffering is creating endurance because we battle not knowing how long we will be isolated from regular life. This is producing Character or allowing us to see those who lack it. Then those who believe in the justification of Christ will also allow Hope to play a part in this worldly pandemic, the belief we have in our character which produces Hope will give us Faith that God will heal and protect us from this virus.
In Closing, do not look at your sufferings as quicksand that you cannot get out from and are neck deep in, instead look at them as the markings of the cornerstones of the Foundation which is Jesus Christ, Who Covers them, Amen!
FIND YOUR HOPE!!!!
One Love, One King, All Christ
