By Brad Henry | September 01, 2011 at 01:55 PM EDT |
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Romans 5:2-5 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. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 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.
So often I hear “God doesn’t give you more than you can handle” & I recently heard it said at my women’s Bible study group. I knew in my heart how wrong that was, but I wasn’t sure where in the Bible it illustrated what I wanted to say to bring home my point, so I just stayed quiet. I am new to the bible study and didn’t feel comfortable yet speaking out. Then, less than a week later, you sent a message on the very same subject (praise the Lord, prayer answered, isn’t it funny how that works out? How God will speak to us if we just look for it and listen!!!)… Well, I shared your message with the leader of my Bible study and told her what I had heard. The next meeting, she passed out your message to everyone and we had a good talk about suffering, and how God DOES let struggles happen to you, as this is what often SAVES you (when you have hit the lowest of lows), or, at the very least, the struggles keep you close to Him. When we are suffering, where do we go most often? To our knees in prayer. And, I can’t speak for others, but I find myself not praying as often as I should when things are going good. Sufferings are God’s way of keeping you close. And I also believe that the closer you get to God, the more Satan tries to attack you, but that is a subject for a different day.Romans 5:2-5 is an important reminder that being a believer is not for the faint of heart, that you are constantly growing in your faith and suffering will happen, but don’t lose the hope! Because these verses also reminds us of the reason to be strong against the suffering: “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us”. You must struggle every day but the rewards will be endless! Below if the verse you used in your July 18th message. I think that is where people get confused. There is a difference between suffering/struggles and temptation.
1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
Linda Grebler
