"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." Romans 5:3-5
As a young college student, I briefly worked at a grocery store. I started out as the kid who would bag up your groceries and carry them out, but just a couple of weeks into the job, the manager had me trained to run the register. I had two brief sessions of observing another clerk, and then, the next day, he told me it was time for me to undergo the trial by fire. I was put in the register by myself to learn how it worked. A frightening thought at first, but one that I learned to pick up quickly.
Thrown into the fire. Sink or swim. We have a lot of different phrases to describe this kind of thing. Basically, we are tested to see if we will succeed, or if we will fail. And that is the same kind of thing that Paul is describing in the verses above. When you get tested, are you going to see good fruit borne from it, or not?
When it comes to our lives as Christians, we also find this same work going on. The Spirit resides within us, to give us God's strength. Yet, His presence doesn't mean that we will all come through with flying colors. Because of our sinful human nature, we will have times where we look to blame others for our lack of success. We will have times where we excuse our behavior because we want to think that someone else engaged in worse behavior. And as we do that, instead of having character produced, which leads to hope, we instead sow discord, and feed the selfish ego.
God has us endure the fire to test us, to see how our character is being shaped by God's Spirit into the likeness of Jesus. We could think of it along these lines. As we are shaped by God's Spirit, we don't look to what is best for ourselves, but best for our neighbor. We may look for justice, but not at the expense of compassion. We look at our actions to see if they build up, or if they destroy. We examine the words we use to see if they serve God and His people, or if they serve us.
Sadly, there are many who find themselves in the flames (or in the water, if you like the sink and swim one better), and who simply do not stand up to the test. Those are the ones who need our care and compassion, even as we work with them to teach them how to endure, so that, next time they face the fire or the lake, they are better able to stand with the Spirit and endure.
As a young college student, I briefly worked at a grocery store. I started out as the kid who would bag up your groceries and carry them out, but just a couple of weeks into the job, the manager had me trained to run the register. I had two brief sessions of observing another clerk, and then, the next day, he told me it was time for me to undergo the trial by fire. I was put in the register by myself to learn how it worked. A frightening thought at first, but one that I learned to pick up quickly.
Thrown into the fire. Sink or swim. We have a lot of different phrases to describe this kind of thing. Basically, we are tested to see if we will succeed, or if we will fail. And that is the same kind of thing that Paul is describing in the verses above. When you get tested, are you going to see good fruit borne from it, or not?
When it comes to our lives as Christians, we also find this same work going on. The Spirit resides within us, to give us God's strength. Yet, His presence doesn't mean that we will all come through with flying colors. Because of our sinful human nature, we will have times where we look to blame others for our lack of success. We will have times where we excuse our behavior because we want to think that someone else engaged in worse behavior. And as we do that, instead of having character produced, which leads to hope, we instead sow discord, and feed the selfish ego.
God has us endure the fire to test us, to see how our character is being shaped by God's Spirit into the likeness of Jesus. We could think of it along these lines. As we are shaped by God's Spirit, we don't look to what is best for ourselves, but best for our neighbor. We may look for justice, but not at the expense of compassion. We look at our actions to see if they build up, or if they destroy. We examine the words we use to see if they serve God and His people, or if they serve us.
Sadly, there are many who find themselves in the flames (or in the water, if you like the sink and swim one better), and who simply do not stand up to the test. Those are the ones who need our care and compassion, even as we work with them to teach them how to endure, so that, next time they face the fire or the lake, they are better able to stand with the Spirit and endure.
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