My attitude lately has not been all it should be. I feel like I am not responding well to physical challenges, nor the mental and emotional ones. So God, in His mercy, reminded me of all that I have in my salvation through Christ Jesus my LORD. He did that by taking me to Romans 5. I am now following His lead and taking a walk-through those first 11 verses once again.
“Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith ….” [verse 1 HCSB]
I have been declared righteous by the faith I placed in Christ Jesus. That is a done deal. He did all the work, and I simply surrendered my life to Him. As glorious as that is … and believe me that is glorious(!), I have even more.
“…we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” [vs2]
I have peace with Him, access to His grace, and the hope of the glory of God in my life. But there is still more …
“And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.” [vs3-4]
I can rejoice in troubling afflictions because I have the assurance that they are producing something in me. I am developing endurance, proven character, and hope.
And what a hope! “This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” [vs5]
Thank you for the reminder. But there is more, the other half tomorrow. PTL
