16 Mar God’s Gifts of Hope
Blog Series:
Renew Your Mind ~ Transform Your Life
Hope is a powerful motivator. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear trials today. Studies of prisoners of war during the Viet Nam war who maintained hope that they would ultimately be released fared far better on every level than those who didn’t.
Last week, we made the point that God loves us, in spite of the fact that He does not make our life go better. This week, we will look at the four gifts God gives us to help us through the hard times, to give us hope that He will not only help us through the hardest time, but also that in the end, all will be well… all will be worth it.
There are four benefits of trials
1. Spiritual transformation
James 1:2 – 4 says, “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
The road to transformation always goes through the tunnel of trials.
Just as greater physical exercise may result in greater physical strength, so greater spiritual exercise may result in greater spiritual strength.
In another analogy, in the gold refinement process, the gold ore, along with all the clay, rocks and sand, is put into a vat and heated until it is all bubbling like golden oatmeal. Everything that is not gold rises to the top and is skimmed off. What’s left is pure gold.
God does something similar with us. God wants the pain to refine us, to encourage us to leave behind our sin and draw closer to Him, making us more like Christ. It is not pleasant. But the goal is our spiritual transformation.
A positive response to trials yields the priceless benefit of spiritual transformation!
2. Greater impact in ministry
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble, with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
God commonly uses our trials to prepare us to minster to others with the same trails. It is common for alcoholics to help other alcoholics, for women who have had an abortion to minister to others who have had an abortion, for men who have gone bankrupt to give guidance and encouragement to others who have gone bankrupt. We simply share with others the truth and grace that God gives to us.
No trial need ever be wasted! Not only will God use it to transform us, but if we let Him, He will also use it to work through us to help others.
3. Eternal reward
Romans 8:18 says, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
Every “loss” we experience on earth can be transmuted into an eternal “gain,” if we respond to the Lord with faith, trust and obedience. When our heart aches over a loss on earth, we can receive comfort knowing the Lord will grant to us a heavenly gain that is beyond our loss, and lasts forever. For the Christian, there need be no loss – only delay.
Yes, God gives us disproportionate eternal reward for every single response of faith and obedience. We cannot even give someone a cup of cold water in Jesus’ name without receiving an eternal reward! (Matthew 10:42) When it comes to eternal reward, we cannot out give God!
4. Deeper fellowship
Philippians 3:10 says, “…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering…“
Christ suffered for us more than we suffer for Him, yet He didn’t have to. Though we typically suffer because we have to, He voluntarily suffered for us because He loves us. When we grasp this, when we take this astonishing truth into our hearts, we develop deep appreciation and gratitude for what He has done in suffering and dying for us.
A bond of identity is forged with Him through our mutual suffering, and we can enter into a level of fellowship with Him, here and now, that we cannot know without suffering. And then, that relationship is carried into heaven, where it will not be constricted by sin and earthly limitations.
These are the four potential benefits of trials. We must burn these four benefits into our minds.
After we have burned these four benefits of trials into our minds, we go into the future, borrow that ultimate reality, and bring it back to help us get through today.
We must fix our focus on the future, when in the end, all will be more than well.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says, “Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look, not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
This passage tells us that if we look at things that are temporal, we will lose heart. If we look at things that are eternal, we will be renewed.
By fixing our focus on the future, we can use future reality to help us endure present reality. Hope gives us power to endure!
Conclusion
That fourth benefit of trials – a deeper relationship with the Lord – will, in the end, be what makes everything worthwhile, and will offer the greatest hope when we get our minds around it (and getting one’s mind around it is a life-long process).
For example, a man I know took his son to New York City years ago for a very special birthday trip. His son was eight or nine at the time, as I recall. It was to be a parent/child getaway to create life-memories and strengthen the father/son bonds.
They were going to go to a huge, famous department store where the son could buy any toy he wanted. Then, they were to have pizza and ice cream in the hotel room and stay up late watching a popular children’s movie.
In between, they went to Central Park to walk around, and ended up deciding to play hide-and-go-seek. So the son closed his eyes and counted to ten while his dad hid behind a large tree. Then, as the son began walking around to find his dad, the dad stayed hidden behind the tree, moving enough to be able to see his son, but his son could not see him.
This went on for a couple of minutes, until suddenly, a look of terror spread across the son’s face. Seeing this, the dad immediately stepped out from behind the tree. The son ran to his father and cried, “Dad! I was beginning to be afraid I wouldn’t find you!”
Even though the purpose of the trip was a lavish toy-buying spree laced with pizza and a movie later than the normal bed-time, it was clear at that moment that the father’s presence was much more important to the son than anything the dad could give him.
And that is the way it will be for us with God. Just to be with Him will be much more important than anything He will give us.
God gives us the promise of tangible reward plus a deeper relationship with Him as gifts of hope to help us believe that He loves us, in spite of the fact that He doesn’t make our life on earth go better.
So far, the posts in this series have been addressing the first step in nurturing an eternal perspective, believing the unbelievable. The second step in nurturing an eternal perspective is to choose the undesirable. Of course, it is not truly undesirable, it just seems like it at first glance from a temporal perspective. But looking at it from God’s point of view, it is the only truly desirable thing to choose. Next week we begin looking at choosing the undesirable.
In case you’re new here
This blog post is part of a series titled “Renew Your Mind, Transform Your Life”, introduced on January 5, 2021. As the series continues, each succeeding post will be added to and available in the blog archives at www.maxanders.com.
If you know anyone who you think might enjoy joining us in this study, please forward this blog to them and encourage them to go to my web site (www.maxanders.com) and sign up for the free video, “Master the Bible So Well That the Bible Masters You”, available there on the home page. This will put them on my regular mailing list and they’ll receive my weekly blogs on this subject.
In addition, I am creating a new online membership site, The Change Zone, that will provide information, strategies and resources to help motivated Christians renew their mind and transform their lives. If you would like to learn more about this and get updates to know when The Change Zone will be available, click here.
I look forward to going through this life-changing journey with you.
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