Ready the Ground 6

Romans 5:3-4

I have a daily exercise routine using the Wii Fit. Among other things I do military presses with weights, push-ups and jackknife exercises. It isn’t always easy. In fact, I would say it is never easy. But I keep doing these things because they keep me healthy.

Every time I feel like stopping, every time I want to give up, I remind myself that what I am doing is building muscle. The workout is helping me feel better even if I don’t feel great as I am going through the routine.

Thinking back on the parable of the sower we have seen the different types of soil that the seed has fallen on. Some of the ground was good soil, ready to grow a great harvest. The other soils were not good – too hard, too shallow, too overgrown with thorns.

These represent the tough times in life. Sometimes we feel that we are the hard path, beaten down by life. Other times we are like the rocky soil – our faith is not deep enough to get us through the tough challenges in life. Other times life is like a field of thorns choking out our hopes and resolve.

But Paul has some encouragement in his letter to the Roman believers. What attitude does he have toward suffering? What does suffering produce? Perseverance? Character?

While it may be difficult for us to rejoice in the times when we suffer, we must maintain the attitude that we will get through these difficult challenges. We must remember that the tough times of life – the thorns and rocks, the days when we are beaten down – will ultimately make us better people.

If we can face our challenges and setbacks with confident faith that God is with us and that God loves us, we can emerge on the other side of trials with a deeper and stronger faith. As we endure suffering we build our faith muscles making us more able to face future hardships. And as we face hardships in the knowledge of God’s love we will have hope for our ultimate victory over the pain with God at our side.

DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you keep a positive outlook in hard times?

Patient in Faith 4

Romans 5:3-4

As a parent it may be difficult to watch your child grow and develop. It is part of the maturing process to try things, fail, try again, and ultimately succeed. Just as the saying goes – you learn from your mistakes – you also grow stronger as you repeatedly attempt certain activities.

Little children must learn how to walk on their own. You can’t walk for them, and as they learn there will be the occasional fall. But eventually those falls will become less and less as the child develops, grows, and becomes stronger and more able.

The same is true of faith. When we turn our hearts over to God we are given faith. We know in our souls that we are loved by God and we get that incredible sense of grace from the Lord. But that is the beginning. We must continue to grow and develop spiritually from that point. And along the way we will face challenges and possible setbacks, but these can help us become stronger.

Paul offers encouragement in the fifth chapter of Romans. Why should we rejoice? What does suffering produce? What does perseverance produce? What does character produce?

We certainly do not want or need to go out looking for trouble and challenges, but when they come our way we should meet them with confidence. Paul claims that Christians rejoice in their suffering. This is hard to do and may be an overstatement.

Rather than rejoice because we have troubles, we should rejoice in the opportunity of growth. When we face troubles we are given the opportunity to become better people, believers with a stronger faith.

When troubles and challenges strike we can have the confidence that God will work with us to overcome them and He will help to build us up. The challenges teach us to persevere, to keep plugging away and to hold on dearly to our relationship with Jesus. As we make it through our troubles we are stronger, our faith is deeper. Our relationship is proved to be valid and strong.

With that we have more character, a better, more sound and secure connection to God. And that gives us hope, hope that as we face future challenges we will again be able to rely on God and grow stronger in our faith.

DAILY CHALLENGE: How can you develop a sense of hope to face challenges and troubles?