Archives at Zinester: [Morning by Morning] Romans 8:18. Morning by Morning. Religion

To give 'Morning By Morning' to a friend, click here.

Good morning! You might think that, having discovered our status as heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, we would now hear from Paul that our troubles are over. We've just more than won the lottery. What can possibly go wrong?

Lots, actually.

I pastor a nice church in suburbia, and you wouldn't believe the extent and the intensity of suffering going on in it -- the cancers and divorces and job losses and mental illnesses and financial crises, the grief that believers have to respond to. Hear, then, Paul on suffering:

18For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

The world offers various ways to cope with suffering -- we can be stoics or cynics or fatalists, which are all brands of resignation; we can be entertained or enlightened, which are forms of distraction. But for the Christian there is another and wonderful possibility.

Faith gives me another perspective.

Faith empowers me to receive God's promises and plans and purposes as they are set out in His Word. Once I know God as creator and redeemer, I have an entirely different perspective on suffering. Death and illness, sin and evil still wound, but they can never triumph.

And faith does something else. Faith empowers me to perceive the intervention of the Kingdom of God in life. I see people being converted and transformed, healed and renewed. I see signs of His caring come into my family. And these experiences of the Kingdom of God make the promises of the Word of God all the more sure to me.

Out of all that, says Paul, reason, consider. What conclusion do you draw about suffering? That we'll avoid it? No. That we'll be defeated? No. There is a glory that will be revealed in you, an eternal glory. Your destiny never was a nice middle-class insulation; that, you will most certainly lose. Your destiny is to be in the eternal presence of the Risen Jesus, who radiates light and power and understanding, whose company is thrilling beyond compare.

The other day I went to see my friend Chip. He just discovered over 40 brain tumors, which are producing some paralysis and will take his life fairly soon. But so far they haven't affected speech or reason. He's been an evangelical pastor for thirty years. He was so excited to know that he had an appointment with Jesus, who had been His Savior and friend all these years.

Believe.