Acceptance with Joy

Romans 5:3 says, “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also:...”  Huh?  Glory in tribulations?  No way!  Tribulations are terrible, difficult, discouraging, and plain old awful!  But wait.  Are they really?  

The end of the verse and the following verse say, “Knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience experience; and experience, hope.”  What do patience, experience, and hope mean?  

In the Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, the Greek word for patience means, “the characteristic of a man who is unswerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings.”  That is a characteristic that we all need, and that is what tribulations bring.  

Experience.  The same lexicon defines experience as, “approvedness, tried character.”  Isn’t that what we need to enter heaven-- a proven, tried character?

Hope.  The lexicon gives this definition for hope: a “joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation.”  Isn’t that what we long for deep inside our hearts?  The natural heart has a void.  People fill this void with all kinds of worldly things, friends, activities, etc.  But those things never actually fill them up, and they find that their void is deeper every time they try to fill it.  The only thing that can fill this void is God.  One thing from God that fills this void is the confident expectation of eternal salvation, i.e., more life than just this life, which is what the world has been longing for since Adam and Eve fell.  

So are tribulations all that bad?  No, they’re actually for our benefit.  “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:” (1 Peter 1:7)  The trial of our faith is much more precious than the gold the world scrambles after.  When we know this about tribulations, we can accept them, and accept them with joy.

Whenever you encounter trials again, remember that God uses them to work on your character and prepare you for heaven, so you can have that confidence of salvation.  

“Behold, happy [is] the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:” (Job 5:17)  

Keep trusting in Jesus!

~Lilienne Stafford