Optimist’s Roundtable

By Martha Sykes

In Romans, chapter 5 are some verses that contain some important concepts for us to live by as we serve Christ.

The apostle Paul reminds us about how God has given us His grace. And He also gives us a clue about how to find joy in our troubles and our suffering. He wrote these words, “Not only so, but we also rejoice in our suffering, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character and character, hope.”

God is much more interested in helping us to develop into mature people in Christ than giving us what we want.

We need to trust the Lord to show us our blessings in the midst of turmoil. Paul teaches us how to rejoice in our bad experiences; by looking at our lives from God’s perspective rather than our own. Our heavenly Father knows what is best. He never allows anything to come into our lives that we cannot handle. As we all have heard so many times from Romans 8:28, “In all things, God works for good for those who love Him.”

This doesn’t mean we won’t have all good things in our lives, but God is able to turn all things around for our long range good. But that can be claimed by those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Those who are called are those that the Holy Spirit touches and help to receive Christ in to their hearts and lives.

He tells us what we can become, if we follow Christ, but in the meantime, we must learn to overcome many obstacles. That means that we will experience difficulties, which will help us to grow.

Through our trials, our doubts, our questions, and our struggles we will learn to persevere and hope for better days.