Like any hardship Christians face, there is, or there will be, good on the other side. Good is<\/i> ahead. But what about in the middle of the trial, when stress saps appetites and steals sleep? Ahead feels\u00a0far away, or perhaps in our lowest moments, like never. When life feels solely bitter, what gives us confidence to keep following Jesus? Let\u2019s consider three truths from Hebrews 12:1-13 that motivate endurance.<\/p>\nWe follow Jesus through temporary suffering to lasting glory.<\/h2>\n
All the faithful people listed in Hebrews 11 anticipate the greatest example of faith \u2014 Jesus Himself. We see both the road He traveled (suffering) and His destination (glory).<\/p>\n
And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (Hebrews 12:1b-3).<\/em><\/p>\n Jesus was always aimed at glory (His Father exalted Him, enthroning Him), but even He reached that grand outcome through endurance (see also Heb. 2:10).<\/p>\n Pain may cause us to question our path: \u201cThis hurts \u2014 I must be doing it wrong!\u201d But, like learning to floss, pain means, \u201cKeep going.\u201d (I once thought bleeding gums meant I shouldn\u2019t floss. Then I learned my gums were bleeding because I wasn\u2019t flossing often enough!)<\/p>\n Focusing on Jesus, we\u2019re assured that hardship isn\u2019t a detour or a roadblock, but the road itself, the means our Lord uses to perfect our faith. We walk the same way Jesus, the \u201cPioneer,\u201d walked because we\u2019re aimed at the same destination.<\/p>\n Everyone experiences hardship, but Christians have a unique hope in hardship: God \u201cis treating [us] as his children\u201d (Hebrews 12:7). The connection between being disciplined by God and being God\u2019s child is counterintuitive, especially if we equate God\u2019s goodness and power with our moment-by-moment happiness: \u201cIf God loves me, I won\u2019t experience hardship.\u201d Maybe, because of hardship, we come to believe God doesn\u2019t love us. Maybe we view God as powerless to help us. Maybe suffering tempts us to stop following Jesus.<\/p>\n The author of Hebrews says the opposite: \u201cIf God loves me, I will experience hardship.\u201d On the surface, this doesn\u2019t make much sense, unless we remember that Jesus suffered before He was exalted. For believers, hardship means that God is our Father and Jesus is our brother (Hebrews 12:7; see also 2:11). In other words, we belong; we\u2019re included in God\u2019s family. The suffering that would discourage us becomes the very assurance that we need to persevere. Suffering means that we are God\u2019s children. Even so, some might say God has a funny way of showing that He loves us. This brings us to the third truth.<\/p>\n In Hebrews 12:9-12, the author makes an argument from the lesser to the greater. If fallible human fathers discipline their children to train them, how much better is the discipline God gives His children? God \u201cdisciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His holiness\u201d (Hebrews 12:10). This discipline results in level paths, healing, righteousness, and peace (Hebrews 12:11, 13).<\/p>\n So is this just a case of the ends justifying the means? No. The only way we will ever be truly happy is if we are truly holy. As C.S. Lewis points out in The Problem of Pain<\/i>, reconciling our suffering with a God who loves requires a robust definition of love and a God-centered perspective.<\/p>\n God does not exist for the sake of man. Man does not exist for his own sake\u2026. We were made not primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too), but that God may love us, that we may become objects in which the Divine love may rest \u2018well-pleased.\u2019 To ask that God\u2019s love should be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God: because He is what He is, His love must, in the nature of things, be impeded and repelled by certain stains in our present character, and because He already loves us<\/strong>,<\/strong> He must labor to make us lovable [emphasis added].<\/em><\/p>\n God simultaneously loves us as we are \u2014 with perfect knowledge of everything we\u2019ve done or will do \u2014 and loves us too much to leave us in the muck. He knows that happiness requires holiness. He\u2019s making us into who we will be: imitators of Jesus.<\/p>\n Christians aren\u2019t masochists, but our gut-level assurance that good is ahead alters the gastronomy of bitterness. What was once unpalatable blossoms into a complex and even desirable experience.<\/p>\n I am thrilled to serve the Lord at Grace and to enjoy a season of rest from the hardship of the past few months. And yet, to my great surprise, I find myself looking back on those months with a strange nostalgia. I have never been more tried; I have never been more formed. Amid difficulty, God granted me great joy, deepening my conviction that He is my Father, and I am His son. May the Lord do the same for you, even in hardship.[\/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”Small Line” line_alignment=”center” line_thickness=”2″ divider_color=”accent-color” animate=”yes”][vc_column_text]\n [vc_row type=”full_width_content” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overflow=”visible” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none” gradient_type=”default” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”padding-10-percent” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” column_element_direction_desktop=”default” column_element_spacing=”default” desktop_text_alignment=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":109982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,23,97,98,46,106,38],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-109980","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-study","8":"category-christian-life","9":"category-gospel","10":"category-grace-church","11":"category-magazine","12":"category-spiritual-growth","13":"category-theology"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEvery hardship (paradoxically) proves God\u2019s love.<\/h2>\n
Every hardship brings our ultimate good.<\/h2>\n
Looking for a place to call home? We\u2019d love to meet you! Click here<\/a> to introduce yourself and learn more about Grace Church, or click here<\/a> to find a campus near you.<\/h4>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"