Reason to Rejoice

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance.” Romans 5:3

Let’s pause for a moment to think about events in the human experience that are cause for rejoicing: a wedding, the birth of a child, a new job, a Patriot’s Super Bowl win….. These things elicit excitement, laughter, hugs and happy tears! They are wonderful things that we welcome and relish.

The apostle Paul makes a seemingly strange addition to our list- suffering. He tells us that suffering is cause for rejoicing. How can that be? No one is excited about suffering. No one laughs about it, and we certainly do not relish it. Notice that what makes suffering cause for rejoicing is the outcome- “Suffering produces endurance.” Endurance is the ability to see the obstacles, to see the difficulty and to keep going in spite of it. This is an incredibly important virtue for the believer, because Jesus promised us that this life would be full of difficulty (John 16:33). Every instance of suffering in your life causes your endurance muscles to grow. Every time you suffer, you are more prepared for what is to come.

We must also consider another key function of suffering–suffering causes us to come to the end of ourselves and to rely upon God. Difficulty exhausts our resources, wears us out and forces us to look outside of ourselves in search of strength. The Christ-follower looks to God, and cries out to Him for help (Psalm 121:1). When we cry out to Him, we are exercising our faith, which is just what God wants, because we cannot please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6). Is it easy? Absolutely not, but suffering is a reason to rejoice.

-Pastor Mike