1 00:00:02,720 --> 00:00:13,880 Speaker 1: Life Audio. Thank you for listening to your Daily Bible Verse, 2 00:00:14,480 --> 00:00:18,160 Speaker 1: the podcast that examined one verse each day to learn 3 00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:21,000 Speaker 1: more about God and his will for our lives. I'm 4 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:25,200 Speaker 1: your host, Kyle Norman. After a brief message from one 5 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:29,040 Speaker 1: of our sponsors, we will continue our lents series God 6 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:32,920 Speaker 1: Meets Us in the Wilderness with a discussion of today's verse. 7 00:00:44,880 --> 00:00:48,960 Speaker 1: Today's verse can be found in Romans Chapter five, verses 8 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:53,519 Speaker 1: three and four. We rejoice in our sufferings because we 9 00:00:53,600 --> 00:01:01,440 Speaker 1: know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character hope. 10 00:01:01,720 --> 00:01:04,160 Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but I like it when 11 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:07,440 Speaker 1: things go my way. I like it when I know 12 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:10,640 Speaker 1: how everything works out in life. I want to know 13 00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:13,600 Speaker 1: what lurks around the corner, how I will address it 14 00:01:13,720 --> 00:01:17,600 Speaker 1: or deal with it and ultimately overcome it. And the 15 00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:20,680 Speaker 1: more that I find that life goes my way, giving 16 00:01:20,720 --> 00:01:23,480 Speaker 1: me what I want when I want it, while that 17 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:27,760 Speaker 1: things are pretty grand. But of course life doesn't always 18 00:01:27,760 --> 00:01:31,360 Speaker 1: happen like that. Not only does life not always give 19 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:35,080 Speaker 1: us what we hope for. Sometimes in the life of faith, 20 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:38,800 Speaker 1: we find that God leads us into wilderness times. The 21 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:42,280 Speaker 1: path of righteousness leads directly into the valley of darkness, 22 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:48,680 Speaker 1: and we find ourselves spiritually struggling or suffering. This is 23 00:01:48,760 --> 00:01:51,960 Speaker 1: exactly the kind of thing that Paul speaks about in 24 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:56,440 Speaker 1: the Book of Romans. Paul isn't putting forward some pie 25 00:01:56,600 --> 00:02:00,440 Speaker 1: in the sky escapist vision of faith. The beginning of 26 00:02:00,520 --> 00:02:04,680 Speaker 1: chapter five, Paul speaks about how we are justified in faith, 27 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:07,240 Speaker 1: how we have peace with God through our faith in 28 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:10,200 Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. He says that we live in a state 29 00:02:10,560 --> 00:02:14,640 Speaker 1: of perpetual access to the abided grace of God. These 30 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:20,160 Speaker 1: are wonderful truths for us, but he also recognizes that 31 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:24,720 Speaker 1: living in this abiding relationship with Jesus doesn't mean that 32 00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:28,320 Speaker 1: we live on spiritual easy Street. It doesn't make the 33 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:32,960 Speaker 1: sufferings of life just disappear. The early Christians knew this. 34 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:40,040 Speaker 1: They suffered persecutions, imprisonments, and martyrdoms. Living in faith isn't 35 00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:44,040 Speaker 1: living with Jesus in the absence of hardship. It is 36 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:47,320 Speaker 1: reaching out to Him in the presence of it. And 37 00:02:47,400 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 1: so the radical thing that Paul says is that we 38 00:02:50,919 --> 00:02:55,400 Speaker 1: can rejoice in our sufferings. Now, of course, we don't 39 00:02:55,400 --> 00:02:59,080 Speaker 1: rejoice that we are suffering. We never rejoice in hurt 40 00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:04,799 Speaker 1: or pain or hardships, but we rejoice in the midst 41 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:08,399 Speaker 1: of it because we can recognize that we never enter 42 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:11,919 Speaker 1: it alone. We can rejoice in the place of our 43 00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:16,400 Speaker 1: sufferings because it is an opportunity for us to rely 44 00:03:16,720 --> 00:03:21,600 Speaker 1: on the saving work of Jesus. Suffering provides this opportunity 45 00:03:21,639 --> 00:03:25,360 Speaker 1: for us to grow in our knowledge of Jesus and 46 00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:29,000 Speaker 1: the depth of his love. And so Paul says that 47 00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:34,520 Speaker 1: suffering produces perseverance. It grows within us the capacity to 48 00:03:34,600 --> 00:03:37,760 Speaker 1: respond in faith to the things that this world throws 49 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:41,600 Speaker 1: at us. We know that we can stand in bold 50 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:45,840 Speaker 1: and resilient faith despite anything because we've had to do so. 51 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:49,080 Speaker 1: We know what it means to cry out in prayer 52 00:03:49,920 --> 00:03:53,680 Speaker 1: or how to pray in tears and groans alone. These 53 00:03:53,880 --> 00:04:00,480 Speaker 1: experiences help grow our capacity to recognize the sustaining power 54 00:04:00,560 --> 00:04:04,920 Speaker 1: of the Spirit in our lives, and this perseverance, Paul says, 55 00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:10,200 Speaker 1: then builds a christ like character within us. The fact is, 56 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:13,760 Speaker 1: we often say that we want to live like Jesus 57 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:19,840 Speaker 1: without actually recognizing what that means. Jesus went to the cross, 58 00:04:20,880 --> 00:04:24,800 Speaker 1: and Jesus called Christians to carry their crosses and follow him. 59 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: The German mystic meister eckert One said that many people 60 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:32,320 Speaker 1: follow Jesus halfway, but not the other half. And he 61 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:35,039 Speaker 1: meant that we say that we follow Jesus, but when 62 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:39,640 Speaker 1: things get tough, we abandon our faith. So when God 63 00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:44,599 Speaker 1: leads us to desert experiences, this isn't to punish us 64 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:47,960 Speaker 1: or hurt us. It's to help us recognize that the 65 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:51,200 Speaker 1: life of faith is a life of carrying our cross. 66 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:55,760 Speaker 1: And when we allow the Spirit to teach us the 67 00:04:55,800 --> 00:05:01,200 Speaker 1: sufferings of hatred or pain or rejections help us love 68 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:06,039 Speaker 1: like Jesus. In the spirit, the places of wounding becomes 69 00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:10,480 Speaker 1: transformed into places of forgiveness. Christ in us turns the 70 00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:14,159 Speaker 1: place of death into the place of new life. And 71 00:05:14,279 --> 00:05:17,200 Speaker 1: being a person of faith means living from that reality, 72 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:21,400 Speaker 1: no matter what might be swirling around us. And so 73 00:05:21,440 --> 00:05:24,080 Speaker 1: it means that no matter what, we can have hope. 74 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:28,240 Speaker 1: As Paul writes in the very next verse Romans five 75 00:05:28,240 --> 00:05:32,880 Speaker 1: to five, hope does not disappoint us. Now, Hope is 76 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:38,000 Speaker 1: not wishful thinking. It's not naivety or the refusal of reality. 77 00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:43,960 Speaker 1: Hope doesn't deny the sufferings of life. Hope ultimately dares 78 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:48,240 Speaker 1: to believe that no situation is irredeemable. Even if we 79 00:05:48,279 --> 00:05:51,159 Speaker 1: don't recognize it, even if we don't see it, even 80 00:05:51,279 --> 00:05:54,920 Speaker 1: if we don't understand it, we can trust that Jesus 81 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:58,159 Speaker 1: is present, and he is active. The Spirit of God 82 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:03,040 Speaker 1: is never doing nothing in our lives, and so in 83 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:07,760 Speaker 1: some way, redemption is always on its way, and this 84 00:06:07,880 --> 00:06:12,840 Speaker 1: gives us reason to rejoice. John Dunn, priest and poet, 85 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:16,920 Speaker 1: once remarked at a time of illness in his life that, 86 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: as hard as it was, his time of illness spoke 87 00:06:19,839 --> 00:06:23,440 Speaker 1: more about Jesus' care and sustenance in his life more 88 00:06:23,480 --> 00:06:28,000 Speaker 1: than his brokenness are hurt. Our sufferings can be redemptive, 89 00:06:28,720 --> 00:06:31,600 Speaker 1: not because it makes the hard stuff go away, but 90 00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:34,880 Speaker 1: because it reminds us of our need of Jesus. Our 91 00:06:34,920 --> 00:06:38,800 Speaker 1: times of sufferings can be times of reliance, times of prayer, 92 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:43,200 Speaker 1: and times of deepening faith. God meets us in the wilderness. 93 00:06:44,520 --> 00:06:48,880 Speaker 1: God meets us in the place of suffering. Where might 94 00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:54,280 Speaker 1: God be meeting you today?