The Third aspect of why you can Rejoice in your suffering is not in the suffering itself but in WHO GOD IS AND WHAT GOD IS “PRODUCING” in you.
Your sufferings in His hand as difficult, and distressing as they are and can be are not worthless, for you are not worthless to Him, but His Beloved and as He takes all things in this fallen world He will work together for good ad part of that is in His Developing and Displaying His people in the midst. God has a purpose and we can choose- and it is a choice, based on the knowledge of the Scriptures and the gift of the Holy Spirit to Joy in the LORD and in His dealings, knowing He is in control, even in my sufferings, So we look at the third aspect to FIX OUR MIND on and meditate and appropriate in delighting in Him “BECAUSE WE KNOW…” He is “Producing” in us character- Christlike Chratecter, to persevere, proven character, and thirdly …
3. Producing Hope –
Not the “hope” of which we often speak of the “hope of doubt”. When we are not sure we might say “I hope it doesnt rain, or I hope we win… I hope it all goes well. I hope they pull through the illness, I hope…” but the word Paul uses here for “HOPE” HAS NO DOUBT IN IT- ABSOLUTELY NONE! A CERTAINTY THAT WHAT GOD SAYS HE WILL FULFIL OF GOOD AND FOR GOOD ULTIMATELY!
Perseverance produces approved character and in turn, brings about, and enlarges our…hope! Biblical hope speaks of certainty!
“Confident expectation in a future good!” The confident expectation in the LORD for good.
- Our Hope is strengthened when we have passed the test in our sufferings, more reliant and confident in His faithfulness and promises. Hope of eternal glory to be with Him.
Hope- Jesus Christ The Believer’s Hope-{1 Timothy 1:1}
“…CHRIST JESUS, WHO IS OUR HOPE,”-{1 TIMOTHY 1:1}
Jesus Christ is the believer’s Hope! Hope is “confident expectation.” It is the hope of certainty not of chance! Hope is… Jesus Christ!
Jesus Christ is my Hope of ACCEPTANCE with God-{Eph 1:6}
Jesus Christ is my Hope of BLESSINGS -{Eph 1:3}
Jesus Christ is my Hope of COMPASSION -{Heb 4:15}
Jesus Christ is my Hope of DELIVERANCE -{ Matt 1:21}
Jesus Christ is my Hope of ETERNAL SECURITY -{1 Peter 1:5}
Jesus Christ is my Hope of FORGIVENESS -{Col 2:13}
Jesus Christ is my Hope of GRACE -{2 Cor 12;9}
Jesus Christ is my Hope of HELP -{Heb 4:16}
Jesus Christ is my Hope of JUSTIFICATION -{Rom 5:9}
Jesus Christ is my Hope of POWER-{2 Peter 1:3}
Jesus Christ is my Hope of MERCY -{Eph 2:4}
Jesus Christ is the believers Hope. The word Hope means “confident expectation.” It is the certainty in eternal realities. It is “CONFIDENT EXPECTATION” in Him because of who He is and what He promises He fulfills in His time, always! But what about a non believer? There is hope for you too, In Jesus Christ, the blessed assurance that “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”-{Romans 15:13}.
In light of Christ who is our Hope, Pause and Thank Him, Praise Him. Go back over the references above and read each one and thank Him for each aspect mentioned, knowing that Thanksgiving GLORIFIES Him {Read Luke 17:17} and is DOING the will of God-{1 Thess 5:17-18}. Use the above verses as fuel for your praise and fuel for your faith as you think and trust in HIM who is our HOPE!
Our Hope is not in a suffering free life but in a suffering free eternity with our LORD Jesus.
“Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.“-{ 2 Cor 4:16-18}. The hope of eternal glory.
Hope That Does Not Disappoint {“Make Us Ashamed”- KJV}-
“That is a figure of speech called litotes, which is the use of a negative to express a positive idea. Paul does this in Romans 1:16 when he says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is the power of God…” What does he mean? He means he is proud; he is confident and bold. I think that is the term that we ought to use here. Hope makes us confident. Hope, or certainty, produces confidence and boldness.” -{John Piper.}
“…hope does not disappoint” literally, “…hope does not make us ashamed.” In Psalm 22;4-5 The Psalmist cries out to God, “In You our fathers trusted; They trusted and You delivered them. To You they cried out and were delivered; In You they trusted and were not disappointed.” The last phrase is literally, “…they were not put to shame.” Psalm 25:3″…Indeed, none of those who wait for You will be ashamed;” To trust in God will not lead to disappointment or shame.
4.- THE LOVE OF GOD “POURED OUT!
One reason we are not disappointed, ashamed, is because of the assurance that God has poured out the love of God into our hearts to assure us! “and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”-{Romans 5:5}.
SUFFERING DOES NOT NULLIFY GOD’S LOVE FOR YOU!
GOD’S LOVE DOES NOT EXCLUDE THE CHILD OF GOD FROM SUFFERING,- NOR CAN SUFFERING EXCLUDE GOD FROM HIS CHILD AND DEVELOPING THEIR FAITH AND CHARACTER THROUGH SUFFERING!
The reason “hope does not disappoint us?” He used the word “BECAUSE” to give us the reason The love of God has been poured out in our heart through the gift of the Holy Spirit to us, assuring us in our suffering, tribulations that God loves us!
“POURED OUT,” IMPLIES AN ABUNDANT CONTINUAL SUPPLY OF HIS LOVE, AND THIS BY THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
These sufferings are not a sign of His displeasure as we often think when something hard or difficult comes into our lives and we need to renew and change our thinking to align up with His Word.-{Read Romans 12:2}. In verses 6-10 He explains this love of God for us! This is so so important because we each can go through suffering, and tribulations and come out the other end, bitter, resentful, angry with God and believing God was “punishing us” and if He really was “good,” “He would not have allowed me to go through this,” and end up settling down in hostility towards God and others. Bitter! And this is because we had a wrong concept of God, we need to see our sufferings, tribulations, and those things that cause distress from His perspective as revealed in His Word. This is why we must be like the Bereans who searched the Scripture when they listened to Paul, to see if what He was saying was true. We must become people of the Word so we can know what the God of the Word thinks and would have us “to be Fully Aware” of!
How sweet of the LORD knowing us that when pain and suffering come into our lives we may think, and we do have an accuser who will bring such vile and destructive and untruthful thoughts to our mind seeking to get an entrance to influence us by embracing accusatory thoughts, by tempting us to embrace them such as “God does not love you!… He is punishing You!” And if we embrace the lie we end up despondent, double-minded, fearful, and with a wrong concept of God as a loving Heavenly Father, whose discipline {training} is done not in love who is for us, but lives to punish you and “get you,” just waiting for you to sin or make a mistake. That is a perversion of your Heavenly Father as one of His. He knows the suffering one, needs to be assured that God loves them! And what is His appeal to His assurance of love for us? The Cross of Christ!
“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.“-{Romans 5;6-10}.
If God could love us when we were enemies, sinners, helpless, unGodly “MUCH MORE THEN…”
Here is the point. Seeing your suffering, tribulations, as God’s Love, for you, not His anger, wrath!His love for you in developing you, making you spiritually stronger!God is working Good for us and in us! He uses difficulties, sufferings for us and not against us
His love manifested in Justifying You
His Love manifested in imparting Peace
His Love manifested in Granting You Access To God
His Love manifested in your new Standing In Grace
His Love manifested in a Future Joy
His Love Manifested in Knowing His Purpose In Suffering
His Love manifested In the Gift Of The Holy Spirit
His Love manifested in The Cross -{Romans 5:1-10}
The Love of God, the Foundation and Focus in times of Suffering and “Knowing,…”To be Fully Aware…” of what God is doing in times of suffering, tribulations, pressures…
God Bless,
Aidan,