“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.” (Romans 5:3-4 NLT)
Have you ever seen someone endure something – a sickness, heartache, trial, setback, or difficulty – and you wondered: “How in the world did they get through that?” My Mentor lost his wife after 63 years of marriage. He grieved until his last day on earth, but it didn’t cripple him. He continued to pray, study, write, and share what God was teaching him as long as he possibly could.
Often in a conversation he would pause and say, “Ed, I miss her!” I’ve only been married 30 years, and I can’t imagine life without my wife. How do you endure such a great loss? Daniel Akin wrote: “Christian character is not created in the moment of adversity. Christian character is revealed in the moment of adversity.”
What will adversity reveal in the moments of our greatest weakness? What is the Lord teaching us today that is building our character to enable us to endure tomorrow? The word translated “endurance” in the verse above can also be translated “patience.” In an age when we can google any fact known to man in a matter of seconds, patience isn’t high on our “to do” list.
We want to rise from the waters of our baptism and win the world. We’re baffled when it seems so many are hardened to the “Good News.” Our enthusiasm wanes and we soon settle into a fruitless life because we’re too impatient to pay the price of endurance. Never stopping to ask why our character is paper thin and can’t bear the weight of a conversation that might challenge our immaturity.
Character isn’t given, in many respects it’s earned. How so? Through hard times, difficulties, trials, heartache, and loss. Until we see those things as gifts from God, we’ll struggle to develop patience which is the pathway to character. Character isn’t a fruit we pluck, it’s a seed we plant, nurture, and painfully wait to come to full growth. But once character grows and develops it gives us “confident hope of salvation.”
Most of the Pastors at the church of which I’m a part are in their 30’s and 40’s, but they’re not cry babies and wimps. They’re not waiting for the Lord to give them maturity, wisdom, and character on a silver platter, they’re earning it in the school of hard knocks. They study hard and stand up to the issues with which they wrestle. They’re not ashamed to share their areas of struggle and to ask for help. I marvel at how God is grooming them to serve so powerfully in His Kingdom. If only I’d been as wise and insightful.
Christian character is a gift from God that is earned through the trials of life. So, if it’s a gift, how is it earned? Good question. Notice in the verse above Paul thanks the Lord, he writes: “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials…” In other words, we can be grateful for the gift of problems and trials, but why? “for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character…”
Without problems and trials there is no character development. That’s why it’s a gift from God. Rather than whining and complaining when we have issues with which we wrestle, we should be mindful of James’ words in James 1:2-4: “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 