![]() ![]() That may be the most powerful benefit Paul has mentioned, and he will talk more about it later in Romans. That makes God's promises powerful indeed.įinally, Paul adds as almost an afterthought that each person who trusts in Christ has been given God's own Holy Spirit to live in our hearts-in our inner being. It is because He cares about us, loves us, so deeply that each of us actually carries His love inside of us, through the Holy Spirit. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. It is not just that God is powerfully able to do what He has promised. The Triumph of Faith 3 Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance 4 perseverance, character and character, hope. In other words, God will always, always keep His promises to us because He loves us. Why can believers be so confident about our ultimate destination? Paul's answer reveals the very emotion of God toward us. Not only that, but 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. ![]() We will never, in the end, be disappointed for hoping to receive God's goodness forever. By that, Paul means our hope will be fully vindicated. Now Paul concludes this chain by saying that our hope will never put us to shame. This, in turn, produces hope, where we experience growing certainty that our ultimate destiny is an eternity of good in God's presence. This produces character, meaning we more consistently choose to do what honors God. Read Chapter All Versions Philippians 3:13-14 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. He began by showing that suffering produces endurance: a deeper, longer trust in God. Galatians 6:9 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ![]() It provides an opportunity to grow into the people that God is calling us to be. Instead, those who are saved-who have expressed faith in Christ-can declare to ourselves that this suffering is worthwhile. He did not mean by this that anyone should necessarily feel happy or enthusiastic about hard circumstances. Paul introduced a challenging idea in the previous verses: that Christians can see suffering as a cause for rejoicing. ![]()
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