February 3, 2020 – Romans 5:1-2

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2.

God’s covenant with Abraham, centuries ago, began the story of God’s chosen people.  Now through Jesus, God’s only Son, we are adopted into Abraham’s Chosen Family.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,  even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love  He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will. Ephesians 1:3-5.  

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,  bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  Colossians 3:12-13.

We rejoice as good things happen to us.  Yet, Farmers rejoice when it rains, for crops don’t grow in continuous sunshine. Even so, a storm of suffering in our lives produces endurance that grows character, which produces hope.  It is God’s Love, poured into our being through the Holy Spirit.

It is not through our efforts, but through the graciousness, love and mercy of God, given through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  God awaits our Yes to faith in Him.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:3-5.