It’s Our Character

Our faith in Jesus transfers God’s righteousness to us and He now declares us flawless in His eyes. We can now enjoy true and lasting peace with God, all because of what our Jesus Christ, the has done for us. Our faith guarantees us permanent access into this marvelous kindness that has given us a perfect relationship with God. What incredible joy bursts forth within us as we keep on celebrating our hope of experiencing God’s glory! But that’s not all! Even in times of trouble we have a joyful confidence, knowing that our pressures will develop in us patient endurance. And patient endurance will refine our character, and proven character leads us back to hope.  And this hope will not disappoint because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through Holy Spirit who lives in us!  Romans 5:1-5 TPT

Whoa! In verse 5, it says, God’s love cascades over us - into our hearts by Holy Spirit whom He has given us!  Each of us!  

It is talking about the personal experience of God working in our lives because of the justification we have received with God through His Son Jesus Christ (back to verse 1, faith in Jesus) 

Without first receiving this justification through Jesus Christ (salvation) it would be impossible for us to understand this challenging concept of having joy in our sufferings. It is something we can only experience and begin to understand because of Holy Spirit, who dwells within us when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

Another lesson that jumped out at me in Romans 5 is that we must persevere through difficult things in life not just the easy and immediately rewarding. 

It seems like an obvious point, but it’s important to chat with God about that for a minute. 

Perseverance is a character quality that most of us would like to have in our lives. But the road to getting there is not easy. Therefore, we must joyfully welcome the suffering that comes into our lives with the fore-sight of the persevering Faith that it will produce. 

Then, once we’ve continued through the suffering we will see that we have character. (By the very grace of God). 

Matthew 7:13-14 MSG Don’t look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time.  Don’t fall for that stuff, even though crowds of people do. The way to life to God is vigorous and requires total attention.

It's our character, gifted from Jesus, that has been through the testing and refining process. To prove that gold is genuine, it requires an intense, often repeated, process of heating up and cooling down: It’s not enough to just feel the flame - we have to allow Holy Spirit to light a fire in our soul ….. melt away our old self.

We do that, so that the only reflection we can see at the end of our suffering is one of genuine faith. A faith that is proved more valuable than any measurable thing.  

And then, as we see that our faith is real, that brings us great hope. Hope that we will need the next time we are stumbling into despair when suffering enters our lives. 

I’m so thankful that the Bible is God’s living word, teaching us, encouraging us, reminding us, because, honestly, when the suffering re-enters our life and the hope we had felt becomes a distant memory, it can be tempting to doubt how genuine our faith really is. 

Trials cause us to despair of ourselves and we realize afresh that we are not in control. We have a choice to make. Do we cleave to God and His promises or do we become doubters, grumblers, anxious, and angry? 

For example, you get a phone call from the doctor and he says you have an unexpected health urgency -  It is in this moment that our faith in Christ is tested. 

Do we despair of life, or do we, with trepidation and through tears, run to a Jesus, meditate on a promise of God…. because He is with us through every thing good and bad-  before bad news you believed in God, but after He takes us through a testing we can point back to genuine faith expressed in the very fact that we chose to cling to God in a difficult circumstance. What an opportunity for joy!

Furthermore, not only is the testing of faith a fresh opportunity to glorify God and trust in His unfailing commitment to us in Christ Jesus, this is also when God gives us His perfectly timed gifts of pouring out His love into our hearts. It’s an experience that cannot be produced with a formula. It is personal, real, and life changing. And it will produce in us persevering Faith and enduring hope.

I read once that ‘If we aren’t in a storm, we have either just come out of one or we are about to go into one.’ 

Not the most encouraging of statements I know but Jesus never said that following Him would be easy. Furthermore, I do believe that we are in a spiritual battle and that we need to fight the good fight of the faith (1 Tim 6:12). We are called to run with perseverance the race marked out for us (Hebrews 12:1), so whatever lies ahead take hold of Jesus’ outstretched hand and press on…. keep going. 

This journey called life is a good The reason - as if we actually need a reason lol - we are encouraged to soak ourselves in scriptures is so that we can lean on them when the lies of the enemy come our way and the storms of life feel overwhelming. 

Let us keep a firm grip on the promises of God that keep us going. We have listed a few great scriptures and recommend reading them, rereading them, declaring them aloud, putting them on your fridge, or finding ways to learn them so that when you feel weak, distant or where there is no way forward, you will be reminded that God is greater than our situations and is faithful through it all.