And Hope Maketh Not Ashamed

Romans 5:5  And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Because of what Jesus did for us by opening to us the way of salvation from sin and God’s wrath, we are accepted with God and we now have peace with God. Whereas before, we had fear of the judgment to come, we are going to see how it is that we not only have access to a personal relationship with God, but we will also learn how to make the most of that relationship!

Romans 5:2  By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

We don’t just come in for an interview with God at salvation, never to meet Him again, but we now have full open door access to Him at all times! We have access to God and to His grace and favor.

Romans 5:3  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience given unto us.

We’re not destroyed by tribulation, nor do we have to praise God for it, but we praise God in the tribulation and are refined by it as gold is refined by the fire. Many times we view tribulation as a sign of God’s displeasure, but tribulation is also a token of His Fatherly love as a means of purifying us from our spiritual weaknesses.

“tribulation worketh patience” – when you’ve been through the fire, the next time you go through it you know “this too shall pass” and thus you become more patient with the process of purifying the next time you go through it.

Romans 5:4  And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

As we are patient in our tribulation, we gain experience with God and we gain the experience of God’s grace, power, and faithfulness to us so that we don’t feel shame as if He has forgotten us or let us down.

Many times, it seems that when people are serving God and they go through times of tribulation, they start to believe that God has failed them because things are not going as they had hoped they would.

Many people may even quit before their experience was fully developed and they never get to see what God was trying to do in their lives!

God does not expect us just to be faithful to Him, but He wants us to expect Him to be faithful to us as well. Don’t let your times of trial be a waste of time…learn something while you’re there, even if what you learn is something new about yourself!

“and experience, hope” – Hope in God’s delivering power is formed by experiences, which takes patience to successfully endure! When you know God has come through for you before, you have a sincere hope that He’ll do it again and you’re not ashamed of having to wait because you know God hasn’t forgotten about you!

While you’re waiting on God to bring you through your tribulation, there’ll be times people may say to you, as they said to the Psalmist in Psalm_42:3  …Where is thy God?

Being able to say, “I’ve been through something like this before and God brought me out”, gives you hope the next time that He will do the same thing again as you stay faithful to Him.  Your experience may even be the very thing someone else needs to hear when it’s their time to go through the purifying process of tribulation.

Romans 5:5  And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

The boldness to not be ashamed of Jesus, or His words while waiting on Him, is only accomplished in us by the power of God the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a gift from God and the love of God is a gift from God.

The Christian life is an ever-evolving life, being made conformable into the image of Jesus Christ, and we’ll always need God’s grace, love, and strength to make these changes in us!

Romans 5:6  For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

Paul brings this part of the message to an encouraging conclusion by saying, “If Jesus Christ went all the way to death for you when you were ungodly, then He’ll walk through any tribulation with you, especially now that you’ve been made Godly!!”

Take courage that if you’re purposing to walk with God, then He is purposing to walk with you!