Strength of Jesus

Romans 5:3-4 (NLT)

3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

The Bible tells us to give thanks for everything and here we are told to rejoice when we face problems and trails. No one wants problems and trials, but they are an inevitable part of life. If we turn to God, our hope, our salvation, and our protector then we can develop strength of character from the confidence we gain in God.

Author Henri Nouwen tells the story of a family he knew in Paraguay. The father, a doctor, spoke out against the military regime there and its human rights abuses. Local police took their revenge on him by arresting his teenage son and torturing him to death. Enraged townsfolk wanted to turn the boy's funeral into a huge protest march, but the doctor chose another means of protest. At the funeral, the father displayed his son's body as he had found it in the jail—naked, scarred from electric shocks and cigarette burns, and beatings. All the villagers filed past the corpse, which lay not in a coffin but on the blood-soaked mattress from the prison. It was the strongest protest imaginable, for it put injustice on grotesque display.

Isn't that what God did at Calvary? … The cross that held Jesus' body, naked and marked with scars, exposed all the violence and injustice of this world. At once, the cross revealed what kind of world we have and what kind of God we have: a world of gross unfairness, a God of sacrificial love. [Philip Yancey, Disappointment with God (Zondervan, 1997), pp. 185-186]

When we face the problems and trials that come at us in life, take a moment to stop and think of Jesus who through no fault of His own was tortured and crucified for our sin. The problems and trials we face are not always fair, nor are they always just. Jesus understands; for he endured harsh torture for our sake. The strength Jesus demonstrated gives us hope that we can also endure the trials we face in life.