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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