HOPE does not disappoint...

Romans 5:1-5, NIV (emphasis mine)

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, 

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 

through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. 

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, 

because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 

perseverance, character; and character, hope. 

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured our his love 

into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. 

Throughout the disappointments in life, I have often attempted to console myself by saying "I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up" or "I'm trying not to get my hopes up until I know what's going to happen." I had a revelation recently when I read this passage in Romans."...suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." After reading several translations of this passage, I moved on to the thesaurus:

suffering

difficulty, ache, misfortune, agonize, disadvantage, 

impaired, endure, affliction, ordeal, discomfort

perseverance

steadfastness, tenacity, purposefulness, diligence,

stamina, diligence, hard work, dedication, endurance

character

courage, honor, uprightness, status, 

integrity, intelligence, reputation

hope

utopia, confidence, achievement, belief, anticipation, 

desire, expectancy, endurance, faith

When I plugged in any of these synonyms into the scripture, the passage really started to speak and come alive. Then it hit me! My mindset of not getting my hopes up and my typical way of dealing with challenges is OPPOSITE of the way this passage outlines. And it's exactly how Satan wants us to go through life. Like the first image shows below, sufferings are the gray, all encompassing cloud. This cloud effects our perseverance which in turn, effects our character and in the end, the only thing left is a tiny bit of hope. While it's present, we arrived there because everything else was stripped away when the suffering took control. 

I earnestly believe this is not how He intended this passage to be interpreted. It should look more like the second image above. As I was milling over the words and reading the various translations, it started to become clear. Our sufferings (big, small and everything in between) help to create and fuel our perseverance. This molds our character which allows us to rest on the foundation of HOPE. It's not all that's left; it's what all the other stuff was pointing us towards all along. 

Now, does this mean that our sufferings never knock the wind out of us? That it will never feel like the rug was ripped out from under our feet? That I am not being faithful if I break down in tears over life's circumstances? Certainly not! Life is hard and Satan is working as hard as he can to remove hope all together.  So what does this mean? I don't have the answer for everyone, but what I can share is what the Lord spoke to me...."Are you getting your hopes up for something I have promised you or something the world has promised you? Notice verse 5, Rachel, verse 5." 

Romans 5:5, NLT

And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how

dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit 

to fill our hearts with his love.

The sufferings and the part I can see now might be disappointing. But His word says that the HOPE we have in Christ will not lead to disappointment. How does this work? Having the faith to trust that sometimes what I perceive as bad serves a very real purpose for His glory. And knowing that no matter how hard it gets, I am not alone and God has not forgotten about me.

We talked recently about expectations in our Sunday school class. The long and short of it was that there are two kinds of expectations: inherent and assigned. If I expect rain to be wet, that is an inherent expectation because water is wet. If I expect rain to taste like candy, this is an assigned expectation because it is not part of water's make-up. This same thing can be applied to God. I can expect him to do what his word says, I can expect him to act out of love, I can expect him to be good, I can expect him to hear my prayers. All of these things are inherent in who God is. If I expect him to give me everything I ask for when I ask for it, make me a millionaire instantly and wipe cancer off the earth, these are assigned expectations. God is capable of all these things, but they are still expectations I am placing upon him rather than characteristics he already possesses.

God could take all my sufferings away and make my life like the ending of any Disney movie. But if this passage is true, and I believe that it is, my sufferings (and those in this world) are instrumental to seeing the beauty and majesty of the HOPE we have in Christ. A HOPE that will NOT disappoint and will overflow upon us:

Romans 5:3-5, The Message

In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged.

Quite the contrary--we can't round up enough containers to hold

everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit.

I'm still going to cry when things are disappointing, and life is going to seem unfair sometimes. I'm going to have sleepless nights and days when I just can't see past the suffering. But as long as I allow the HOPE to influence my suffering rather than the suffering to dictate my hope then Satan hasn't won. As we sang in VBS when I was a child "If the devil doesn't like it, he can sit on a tack!"