ROMANS 15:4

For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.

TO PONDER

What was the worst thing you ever experienced, the hardest time you had to live through?

While you faced this trial, did well-meaning people ever come up to you and give you the trite response of, “well God must be trying to teach you something!”, or something similar? Did the response bring you hope, or did it just make you want to headbutt them (of course I am the only one who would have those thoughts)?

I remember while going through one of these difficult times my developed response was “well I wish I could have learnt ‘the’ lesson in a sermon!” Today’s verse is not Paul giving you ‘that’ trite response, in fact it’s the opposite.

Paul was, in a way, telling us where the sermon is that we can learn to have hope through those hard times. The place we can learn from is the experience of others. In their stories we learn that God is always faithful, that he is not trying to teach us a lesson but showing us his love and faithfulness as he walks with us through those hard times.

In the midst of one of the darkest periods in my life, people kept suggesting that I should read the book of Job, so I read it and was humbled when I got to the final chapter when Job repented. In essence Job is a book about a man who was righteous, and went through the worst of the worst, being told he obviously had something to learn, that he had hidden sin but he was actually righteous.

He repented when he realised he was looking for the 'why' instead of looking towards the 'who' that carries our hope. 

PRAYER:  Faithful God, I praise you that when my hope is aimed towards you that it is a sure hope, a definite hope, a hope that will never end in disappointment. Amen.

Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside