Last week, we looked at the foundation of our joy: the grace of God and His free gift of eternal life in Christ. Heaven seems like a great reason to rejoice, right? 

But in the next verse of Romans 5, Paul throws a curveball: 

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings . . .” (Romans 5:3a) 

Wait, what? I’m on board with rejoicing in the thought of eternal glory, but rejoicing in suffering? You better explain yourself, Paul! 

“ . . . Knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” (Romans 5:3b-4)

I’d love to develop endurance, character, and hope. But if I’m honest, I’d rather enjoy a comfortable, easy, suffering-free life. I lose interest my character development quickly if it requires suffering to get there. 

However, God is more concerned with my character than my comfort. He is working to conform me to the likeness of His Son, not to conform my lifestyle to match my neighbor’s. Joni Eareckson Tada, a quadriplegic and cancer survivor, said it this way: “Sometimes God permits what He hates to accomplish what He loves.” 

God hates suffering, illness, tragedy, and death. But in His mysterious sovereignty, He uses suffering to accomplish what He loves: teaching His beloved children endurance, growing our character, and giving us hope. When suffering causes our earthly security to crumble, and we see that the only true source of hope is the Lord. We learn where true and lasting joy is found. And our faith grows stronger as we cling to the Lord through our trials. 

Suffering is not good. But growing in character, learning endurance, and finding our hope in the Lord are very good indeed. This gives us a reason to rejoice, even in our suffering. 

No matter what you face this week, God will use your suffering to grow your character, endurance, and hope in Him. 

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What makes you happy? A good night’s sleep? A delicious dinner you didn’t have to cook? A new pair of shoes? (Those are all near the top of my list!) 

These small blessings bring happiness, but often those feelings are fleeting. We enjoy dinner out with friends and then our mood sours because an inconsiderate driver cuts us off on our way home. We wake up feeling rested but find that we’re still irritated or overwhelmed by the day’s events. And when we struggle with ongoing, difficult circumstances, happiness can be hard to find—no matter how many pairs of shoes we buy. 

Last week, we saw in Romans 5:1 that we have peace with God through faith in Christ. In the next verse, we read that we always have a reason to rejoice: 

“Through [Christ] we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:2)

Paul says in this verse that we’ve been given access to God’s grace, not because of anything we’ve done. We’ve obtained this access by faith. We stand in the grace of Christ’s righteousness given to us. 

God gives us the promise that we will share in His glory one day in Heaven. Because of Christ, we have a secure standing before God now and a firm hope in eternal life. When our joy is rooted in this hope of future glory, we have an unchanging reason to rejoice through all the highs and lows of this life. 

This week as we face difficulties, let’s cling to the promise that we stand secure in God’s grace and the hope of eternity with Him. And as Paul says in Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” 

No matter what you face this week, God’s grace gives you a reason to rejoice. 

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Have you ever felt weighed down by conflict in a relationship? When we can’t resolve our difficulties and there’s not peace between us, it causes pain. Maybe you keep trying to reconcile, or maybe you just walk away and try to put it out of your mind. But without real peace, the pain lingers. 

 What about our relationship with God? If we believe what the Bible says, there’s a big problem in our relationship with God, and that problem is our sin (Romans 3:23). Because God is holy and righteous, the stain of our sin has broken our relationship with our Creator beyond what we can repair. 

That’s where the good news of the Gospel comes in. God sent His Son to do everything required to reconcile us to God. 

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1)

Because of Christ, we have peace with God. We are reconciled to our Heavenly Father and Righteous Judge, the Lord God Almighty. We are declared righteous by God because of the righteousness given to us by Christ. We receive this declaration of righteousness by faith – not by trying on our own to repair this broken relationship.  

As a result, we can have confidence in our relationship with God. We broke it, and we couldn’t fix it, but Jesus reconciled us perfectly and permanently. We don’t have to be weighed down by guilt and shame. We have peace with God. 

Because we have peace with God, we also pursue peace with others. We can’t control how others respond, but we can extend to others the same mercy Christ extended to us. And when reconciliation with others isn’t possible, we can find our hope in the one relationship that will always be characterized by perfect peace. 

No matter what you face this week, you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

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Have you ever seen the anchor of a giant ship? Back when cruises were something people did, I remember seeing a cruise ship’s massive anchor and marveling at how heavy it must be. It turns out that a cruise ship anchor can weight about 28,000 pounds! 

Whether you’re enjoying calm waters or in the middle of a storm, you need a strong anchor for your soul that can hold tight. Are you, like me, sometimes tempted to trust in lightweight anchors like the approval of others, a fun event on the calendar, or the next purchase you want to make?  

These anchors won’t hold us through the tough times. True anchors are strong. Anchors are immovable. Anchors provide stability when life around us is turbulent. We have such an anchor described in Hebrews 6:   

“We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 6:19-20) 

Our hope in Christ is a sure and steadfast anchor for our soul. The rest of this verse might sound like a bunch of confusing religious talk with big words and a long name. But the author of Hebrews is basically saying this: our hope rests on the work Jesus has done to reconcile us to God. 

Because of His sacrifice for us on the cross, we are brought into a relationship with God. We are declared righteous because Jesus was righteous in our place and took the penalty our sin deserved. 

What Christ has done for us can never been taken away. In Christ, we have every spiritual blessing now and forever. (Ephesians 1:3-14). This is our hope – the anchor our souls can hold on to in the most ferocious storm. 

Are your circumstances tossing you haphazardly? What can you cling to that will never fail or waver? I haven’t found anything in my life more steadfast than the promises of my Heavenly Father fulfilled in my Savior. Jesus is our sure and steadfast anchor, and He’s the only anchor we need. 

No matter what we face this week, we have a sure and steadfast anchor for our souls. 

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