The Cycle of Suffering
This morning I was reading Romans 5 and the words leaped off the page as I read them.
Romans 5
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
According to Paul, there is a cycle to suffering. When we suffer it isn’t for nothing. It is a cycle that will lead to character and eventually hope, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Something I have to continually train myself to do is to view suffering from the perspective of what it will become. In Christ, suffering is never what it seems to be in the moment. Rather, it is maturity, character, encouragement, life, and hope that has yet to blossom. But the question remains: will you be able to give it the time to grow into that?
Give your suffering some perspective and time, and, in Christ, it will turn into something much more valuable.
