Hope in the Midst of Trial

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

Remember that great line from that classic 1980’s film “The Princess Bride”? “Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”

Now, we can be assured that the Bible is not trying to sell us something. It is “straight up”. It tells us that fear, pain and suffering are real. Trouble and danger are unavoidable.

In Romans, the Apostle Paul reminds us that it is only through suffering that we are able to share in Christ’s glory (Romans 8:17). The cross precedes the crown. The path to the throne is through the thorns.

The Bible fully acknowledges suffering, but it does so in hope, telling us “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18).

Now, you may feel that your disappointments are too deep, your suffering too intense. You may feel you can no longer hang on. Let me remind you that the Bible gets it. It totally understands your experience. And it offers hope in the midst of your very real storm. It promises that regardless of whether you can hang on, the Love of God in Christ always hangs on to you.

Listen to God’s promise:
…in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39 NASB)

You may lose your grip on God; God’s never loses His grip on you.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written,

‘For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
~ Romans 8:35-39 (NASB)