To live IN HOPE

How do we live IN HOPE of the Fathers goodness?
What is my comfort worth?

I have been meditating on this verse a lot:

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8:18-21)

As Americans, living in a country where it is safe to be a Christian, we may never know what it truly looks like to suffer for the Gospel.  My life as a Christian has been relatively safe; a fact that is counterculture if you truly look at Christianity over the course of human history. 

To be a Christian has historically not been a safe thing.  I have no idea what that is like.

The Bible never promises that life in relationship with the Father will be safe or easy, He only promises us Himself. 

I truly believe that safe Christianity won’t last.  All earthly powers will eventually fall, whether that will be in my lifetime I will never know.

What I do know is that “suffering” is not a bad word in the Kingdom of God.  From our earthly perspectives how can we possibly see ourselves as capable of deeming things as “good” or “bad?”

Even if we never know prosecution, we do know what it is like to be tempted, to be prone to doubt, to have to choose hope and life in the face of disappointments and unmet expectations.

While we may never face really prosecution in our lives, we can know what it looks like to daily surrender our hearts, our perspectives, and our expectations to the Father.

Sometimes it’s hard a heck.

As much as my mind doesn’t want to comprehend it, there is nothing in the world that the Father didn’t allow.  He is Good.  So I need to trust that He will do good.  He makes beauty from ashes.

His heart for us is that we will be brought from death to life in every aspect of our lives.  

If we are eternal beings then our lives on earth are a dot on the line of eternity.

Our we living for the dot or the line?

Are we able to trust that He has the power to turn all things for good because He is good?

What is our comfort worth?

“But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in your unfailing love for ever and ever.  For what you have done I will always praise you in the presence of your faithful people.  And I will hope in your name, for your name is good.”

Lord, I pray you teach me to live IN HOPE of your your freedom for me and for all people.