Struggles...Then Perseverance...Then Character...Then Hope

Romans 15:4 says, "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have HOPE." Note that one of the ways we gain hope is by endurance. Those are to amazing terms that Paul juxtaposes with one another: endurance and hope. We don't normally associate the terms together.

But it makes perfect sense. We should know that it is God’s good pleasure to give you the desires of your heart. But, it is also God’s practice not to always give us what we want when we want it.  Thus we learn to wait upon God and learn endurance.

Why would God delay fulfilling that which we hope for? One possible reason would be so that we would gain an appreciation for what He gives when it arrives. When you have to wait for something really good, it makes it even more appreciated (think Christmas as a kid and waiting to open the gifts).

Another possibility would be our need for purification and strengthening. Romans 5:1-5 tells us: “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." 

I personally think verses three and four provide great principles for child-raising. Notice that Paul again says that perseverance (endurance) produces character and character in turn produces hope. When we give our children everything at their whim, we deny them the opportunity to develop character. It seems as though we are giving our children more and more, yet so many of our young people are hopeless! Why? Could it be that our unwillingness to not allow our children to persevere and wait for things has created a lack of character? Could it be that our attempts to protect them from suffering is in fact blocking the ability to produce character in their lives?

Let's work the formula backwards for a moment to get a clearer understanding. We are not disappointed...because we have hope. We have hope because we have developed character. We have character because we have persevered. And we persevere because we have struggles. So we have hope when we are willing to endure struggles rather than run from them, rather than being protected from them, or rather than avoiding them.

God’s delays serve to prepare us to handle the responsibilities of our desires and the gifts we receive from God.