5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Ro 5:1–5.
In different seasons of our lives we see the scripture differently. Things jump out in front of us that have not before. In these five verses what has been happening in me is spelled out. I am not complete in any of these by far but growing in each one. I never realized that the last few years I have lost hope. I have lived my life feeling the weight of everything upon me and my performance. When my Dad and Mom divorced I became the man of the house and had to do a lot of growing in a hurry. Unfortunately some things that should be apart of my maturing during the teenage years is not there. I went from 12 to 18 very quickly. My mom and sister needed my strength and so I gave it to them. I became a loner and someone who was very self sufficient. I went to work at 14 to help my mom pay the bills because my Dad did not pay any child support. I once replaced a clutch at 16 with a younger friend and a chiltons manual. We are lucky we didn't get hurt and that it ran after. I remember after the fact that the guys at the restaurant I worked at asked me where I got the special tools to get the engine and transmission lined up. I said what do you mean it just slid on. Then I was proud, now I know that God was in the mix of that. After a long life of many battles you loose hope that they will ever stop. That what where they for, and in the midst of them some want to coddle you, some say shut up, and some judge you that you put yourself there. Today though I see that God has been using them to get me to grow hope in Him that will sustain me. I have taken hope the last six years in three things. My abilities, man's favor, and man's plans of how to accomplish it. I choose from now on to have hope in my God who loves me and is helping me to accomplish His will. I am going to choose to allow the Hope of God to grow in me and my family. Then it can spread to those we minister to everyday. God who is hope, please read below it may help you.
In Scripture hope often is substantive as well as active. One may “have” hope, since to do so is to possess God who is hope. Thus hope came to be regarded as one of the “theological” virtues in the triad of faith, hope, and love (e.g., Rom. 5:1–5; Eph. 4:1–6; 1 Thess. 1:3; Heb. 6:10–12). The three belong together and always function as one; none is possible without the other. As an act, hope may be thought of as the prospective totality of the response of faith to love, i.e., to God who is love. Love is the “greatest of these” virtues in that it is primary, being the very nature of God who is the source and goal of hope, but all three virtues—faith, hope, and love—abide (1 Cor. 13:13).
Allen C. Myers, The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1987), 501.
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