A devotional thought presented originally to Swift Current Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Thursday 19 February 2015
Read
Romans 5:1-5
One
morning when we were missionaries on Vancouver's downtown eastside, I was
mugged. It was early in the morning and I was on Main and Hastings – that most
infamous intersection in this most infamous neighbourhood - and I was on the
phone with my wife who was out of town at the time.
Someone
came running up behind me, grabbed my briefcase and tore down Main Street. In
the briefcase was my laptop and all the information for the summer school
program I was running for the kids in the area; so, like anyone mugged in the
depths of skid row, I…well, I chased the mugger.
I
followed him down Main Street through Chinatown across busy streets and around
the myriad of mazes that are Vancouver’s back alleys. Scaring rats, jumping
over sleeping street folk, I pursued my assailant. When I was within reach of
him… I fell right in front of a bus and though I escaped with my life, the
mugger escaped with my briefcase, my laptop, and the program files for the
kids.
It was
when I was walking back, completely distraught and despondent, that I
experienced a miracle: I encountered an angel, a messenger of God, in the back
alleys of Vancouver’s storied downtown eastside. I can still remember vividly;
he looked like a ‘dumpster diver;’ he prayed with me and he offered me these
words of encouragement from Romans 5:3,4 “...but let us also rejoice in our
sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance,
character; and character, hope.” Inside I sighed. I knew he was right. God gave
me these words to encourage me. . God sent His messenger to prepare us for
impending challenges ahead.
In the
next months a number of tragedies and struggles would confront our family. We
were to receive serious, vocal, practical and other opposition from the Enemy
through even people very close to us. We had to consciously protect even our
children from harm; the foe is relentless.
The
Apostle Paul says here that we should rejoice in our suffering because - if
indeed our suffering is for the gospel - it will produce perseverance and you
know what perseverance is good for, right? It gives us the ability to get
through more suffering and difficult times and you know why God gives us the
ability to get through more suffering and difficult times? …Because we’ve got
more suffering and difficult times to get through still. So as we rejoice in
our perseverance through difficult times we can rejoice because we will be
ready for the even more difficult times that lay ahead.
Romans
5: “...rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces
perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” And this hope will
never disappoint us (v.5).
When
have you had an opportunity to experience that hope that we experience as we
rejoice in our suffering?
[1] Based on the sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay, Romans 5:3,4:
Hope and an Angel on the Downtown Eastside. Presented to Swift Current
Salvation Army, 09 August 2009 and Nipawin and Tisdale on 20 April 2008.
On-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2008/04/romans-534-hope-and-angel-on-downtown.html
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