And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14: 16-18
And so we are not left like orphans in a hopeless world! The same Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead now resides in us. Yet we can still struggle between the soul and the spirit. We can still struggle about which to put our hope in. we can still be like the Jews from 2000 years ago, waiting for Jesus to deliver us from the oppression we find ourselves under in this life. Our key verses however teach us that sufferings in this present life cause a chain reaction in the life of a believer. Sufferings first of all produce perseverance. The dictionary defines perseverance as; "steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., esp. in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement." The world and the enemy will try to distract us from what we believe. They will try to break our steady persistence in our course of action for God. It is the sufferings, those low times; that will develop and strengthen what we believe or tear it apart. It depends on what we hope in. If our hope is solely focused on the temporal situation and alleviating the situation, we can be disappointed if God has another plan. If our hope is focused on God's plan and the faith we have in His loving kindness, then we can rejoice in our sufferings. Too often we compare our sufferings to others, to our own expectations, and to the things of this world. Paul teaches a better way:
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18
Once again, our hope needs to be centered in the right place. We should avoid centering our expectations on this world instead of what has been promised to us. Paul goes on to teach that our best life is yet to come:
Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. Romans 8: 23-25
Now it is true that most of us came to Christ as a direct result of our condition within this hopeless world. Having reached the bottom and starting to dig, we finally realized that there simply had to be more than this. The creation, once again longed for the creator. We brought our shattered life to Christ but instead of merely fixing our mortal life, He exchanged it for an eternal life! No longer bound by the hopelessness of this world, we now have true hope. The elusive hope that Friedrich Nietzsche could never find because he only sought it within the limitations of his own mortality.
Our sufferings we rejoice in because we know it produces perseverance. Consequently, our perseverance produces character. The dictionary defines character as; "the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing." What forms our individual nature? According to these key verses it is how we deal with the sufferings and challenges of our lives. If when the storms of life come against us our first reaction is to give up hope and despair, then we will develop a hopeless character. Have you met someone like that? Even though they are saved by the blood of Jesus, they still live a life devoid of hope because their problems become bigger than their problem solver? Maybe their beliefs waver and are tossed about based upon which way the wind blows in their life. Maybe their sufferings cause anxiety a doubting of the power of God in their lives. Maybe they fall back to the solutions of the world instead of resting in the assurances of God. Many times we spend so much time trying to get out of the wilderness that we never learn why God had us in it to begin with. So we can learn to persevere. So we can rejoice in the midst of sufferings. So we can develop a Godly character.
A godly character understands that the abundant Christian life still has valleys. A godly character understands that the eternal life now does not mean that there will not be storms. A godly character understands that no matter how the enemy tries to separate you from God; that belief is always stronger than emotion that in fact there is nothing the enemy can do or say that will change our position in Christ:
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8: 38-39
