Written by Paul Lane
The Word
5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, let us 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 let us rejoice (or boast) in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but 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.
Romans 5:1-5 (ESV)
16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.
2 Thessalonians 2-16-17 (ESV)
4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Romans 15:4 (ESV)
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Romans 15:13 (ESV)
Reflection
I like the verses in Romans 5 because it explains that hope, true hope, comes at the end of a process. We go from suffering, to endurance, to character, and then hope. We all suffer in some way, so in this we learn that we are to endure and not give in. But if it is only that we prove endurance, we will only have pride to show for it. That is not the Lord’s goal for you. He wants you to develop character. And growing up we all knew what it was like when our parents told us that doing without or having some disappointment would build character in us. We did not like it back then, but they were right. We did develop character and learned to overcome.
So, here we learn that true hope is built on the character of the hoper. But it is not only that. Remember that hope is not beset on a foundation of pride. We have character from overcoming, but we do not overcome on our own. We have help. If we learn to overcome while relying on the Lord, we have a character that has learned to hope in the Lord, and it is the Lord who is pledged to fulfill our hope.
Application
Think of the things you are hoping for. Are some of them frivolous or unrealistic? It’s fine if some of them are, as long as they are not dominate and open for correction. What is important is that they are consistent with the Lord’s will for your life. Often, we have unmet expectations from the Lord because we are hoping for the wrong thing. It is not wrong to hope for ice cream if it is in the context of moderation, dessert, fellowship. However, sneaking ice cream while everyone sleeps speaks to a desire out of sorts. We know we ought not do that.
Prayer
Dearest Lord, it is in You that we put our hope and our trust. Knowing that You build our faith, through learning the good and unlearning the bad, we hope for a better day in which the character of Christ is revealed within us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
City Life Starter 
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