Hope

I was watching a movie the other night where a character asked, "Do you know the definition of perseverance?" "Continuing on in a course of action despite discouragement, opposition or past failures". Not sure I got that quote exactly, but it made me think about the verse in Romans 5 that says, "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." Suffering of any kind is discouraging and when we fail, I think it's so much easier to give up than try again. But what the character in the movie was saying was that perseverance is continuing on. What Romans is saying is that there is reward for continuing on. What is that reward?

First, it's character. We can know the depth of who we are in Christ and how solid that foundation is when we face trials and tribulations. That is one reason I long for a trial in my life. My life right now is peaceful and uneventful. I feel a bit useless in fact because there doesn't seem to be much going on. I am thankful for the time, don't get me wrong. But I love the feel of that foundation. I enjoy seeing how God comes through. In the past, I think I sought out the wrong kind of "trials"...I would create consequences for myself instead of allowing the Lord to bring His form of shaping and molding into my life. But now...now I just long to feel the chisel. Perhaps that doesn't make any sense, but it does to me. And I can only pray that the Lord would find me worthy in some sense to suffer for His name's sake.

And when character is built, we have hope! Not because of who we are in and of ourselves. But hope comes from what the Holy Spirit has put in us! Christ IN us gives us hope!!! Hope that drives us on when we would rather give up and throw in the towel! I can't tell you how many times I have failed at losing weight and getting healthy. I have tackled the problem over and over and over again. I have wanted to give up so many times! But somewhere deep inside me, I know I'm missing out on a level of intimacy with Jesus and that drives me to keep working. To keep figuring it out and wrestling with the issue.

The flip side of that is hope deferred. Proverbs 13:12 says Hope deferred makes the heart sick. I have been hopeless. I have had a sick heart. A heart that can't see the good. Cynical. Depressed. Angry. All kinds of things go on in a sick heart. I don't believe that we ever fully embrace hope or experience healing from that sickness this of heaven. We will continue to struggle against it until we go home. But the process this side of heaven can be joyful, peaceful, and carry a sense of fullness instead of devastation.

So when life gets you down...it's time to let Christ pick you up! We have to remember the essence of being human is to hope! And it's our hunger for Jesus that will lead us toward those sufferings and allow our character to be molded into His likeness and reveal to us the hope we find in being anchored to Him! Oh how I love my Jesus, my Hope!