Enduring Hope: Trusting God When the Future Is UncertainSample

Week 1 / The Nature of Hope

Suffering Produces Hope

Read: Romans 5:1–11

SOAP: Romans 5:3–5

Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Into the Text

Hope. It is the expectation of something good. It is desire accompanied by expectancy. It is confidence to wait for those good things, no matter what happens around us. It reminds us that we can expect a positive outcome, relief from suffering. Yet hoping can be a risky business. What if that positive outcome never happens? What if the good we expected turns out to be evil? What if our desire is never fulfilled?

We put our hope in all kinds of things: money, relationships, family, health, status, and reputation. But there is only one kind of hope that will never disappoint us. This hope is in God’s promises. It is the hope we have in Jesus, believing that He has taken the penalty for our sins by His death and that by believing in Him we can have a relationship with God and eternal life. This hope does not disappoint us because it is rooted in God’s love.

We have hope because of what God has done for us. While we were sinners, Christ died for us. Because of this, God declared us righteous and saved us from His wrath. We are saved by His death, forever given peace with God and a hope that will never disappoint.

The hope we have in Christ did not come for free. Christ suffered and died so that we could have this hope. As we follow Him, we too will experience suffering, but this suffering is cause for rejoicing! Suffering causes us to gain endurance, learn what it means to keep going, trusting God when our circumstances tell us to give up. That endurance builds character in us, reminding us of God’s faithfulness as we endure suffering again and again. And finally, this character becomes hope, a joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation.

God gives us hope because of His great love for us. He didn’t have to tell us His plan for Christ to return and for us to be with Him forever. But He told us so that we could live in hope, in the expectation of good that is to come, even while we experience suffering. We may grow weary, but our hope doesn’t change because our God doesn’t change. Whether in joy or sadness, we always have a hope that will never disappoint.