We Rejoice in Our Sufferings

By Tom Kingery

We Rejoice in Our Sufferings is based on Romans 5:1-5. It explores the passage in depth, but the primary focus is on suffering, trials, and tribulations—and why we can rejoice in spite of them.

Quoting Scripture, the author notes, “Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint us.” (Romans 5:3-5)

Tom Kingery, a retired United Methodist pastor, urges you to think about how you have suffered. There are many types of pain, many kinds of trouble, and many times when we want to sing the blues.

However, if we learn to endure by God’s grace, we can gain not only a positive perspective that is rooted in faith, but we can feel triumphant. We can overcome.

Understanding where God is in the midst of our trials helps us understand who God is and what our suffering means. Sometimes there is a purpose to our suffering, so rejoice!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Dec 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664212190

Tom Kingery

Tom Kingery retired from the United Methodist Church in 2017 and lives in Durand, Illinois. After serving 7 appointments in the Northern Illinois Confrence, he is blessed to continue in ministry as the preacher at The Church By The Side of The Road in Rockton, a non-denominational congregation with a close family spirit. He has published several other books concerned with faith and spiritual growth, all grounded in Scripture and relevant with respect to the journey of a believer. Tom grew up in a suburb of Chicago and went to the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. A daughter, Emily, lives in Davenport and teaches at St. Ambrose University. Tim, his son, lives with Jen and their son and daughter in Deerfield, Illinois.

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 Tom Kingery.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

844-714-3454

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®

Scripture marked (KJV) taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1218-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6642-1219-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020922325

WestBow Press rev. date: 12/02/2020

CONTENTS

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter 1 Justified by Faith

Chapter 2 Peace with God

Chapter 3 We Stand in the Grace of God

Chapter 4 The Hope of God’s Glory

Chapter 5 Suffering

Chapter 6 We Rejoice in Our Sufferings

Chapter 7 Perseverance and Endurance

Chapter 8 Character

Chapter 9 Hope

Chapter 10 God’s Love

Conclusion

DEDICATION

To Carol

If all I could dream of, and all that is real,

And all I should smile at, and all that I feel,

And all that is splendor, and all that is true

Could only be mine, I would give it to you.

Therefore, since we are justified by faith,

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom we have gained access by faith

into this grace in which we now stand;

and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings,

because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

perseverance, character;

and character, hope.

And hope does not disappoint us,

because God has poured out His love into our hearts

by the Holy Spirit,

Whom He has given us.

(Romans 5:1–5 NIV)

INTRODUCTION

I consider that our present sufferings

are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us.

—Romans 8:18 (NIV)

W e will all suffer … sometime. Our faith in Jesus Christ compels us to have a future-oriented perspective in life. We do not just live for today. We know that what we do and experience in our lives today can have a powerful impact on our tomorrows. Our tomorrows can be very different from what we planned or expected. Still, we look forward, especially to the new and wonderful blessings we hope will come to us.

Mary Rowlandson lived during the 1600s in a New England settlement. Her community was attacked by Native Americans in the 1680s. Homes were destroyed, people were killed, and she was taken captive with a neighbor’s severely wounded five-year-old. He died in a few days’ time. But she survived as a captive under the oversight of a cruel man and his wife. She barely had any food or comfort for days at a time, until she was ransomed by friends and family for twenty pounds. The attack may have been provoked by the settlers.

She wrote later,

I was with the enemy eleven weeks and five days, and not one week passed without the fury of the enemy, and some desolation by fire and sword upon one place or another. They mourned (with their blackened faces) for their own losses, yet, triumphed and rejoiced in their inhumane, and many times, devilish cruelties to the English. (Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, 1682)

At the end of Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, 1682, she wrote,

I have seen the extreme vanity of the world: One hour I have been in health, and wealthy, wanting nothing. But the next hour in sickness and wounds, and death, having nothing but sorrow and affliction. (Narrative)

She kept calling to mind the passage of scripture from Hebrews 12:6, which says, For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth (KJV).

Later, she wrote,

But now I see the Lord has had His time to scourge and chasten me …Yet I see, when God calls a person to anything and through never so many difficulties, yet He is fully able to carry them through and make them see, and say they have been gainers thereby …If trouble from smaller matters begin and rise in me, I have something at hand to check myself with, and say, Why am I troubled? It was but the other day that if I had had the world, I would have given it for my freedom; or, to have been a servant to a Christian. I have learned to look beyond present and smaller troubles, and to be quieted under them. (Narrative)

Part of her story’s message is that there is always hope for a better future. Throughout her narrative, she shared how she kept calling to mind passages of scripture that sustained and gave her hope.

A Christian should indeed have a future-oriented perspective. Mary Rowlandson had hope, and she gained a new perspective about life through her suffering. She was always looking forward to the end of her ordeal. Her primary hope was to be reunited with her husband and family, and she was. Because of her faith, she was able to believe as Paul did when he said, I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18 NIV). We must think about the future.

I have had kidney stones—five episodes. I know others who have endured this pain more than my five times. But I have been in pain. It isn’t always easy to call up positive passages of scripture when the only thing you want to do is escape the pain. Just like every other human being, I know what pain is. I know that we would all tend to do just about anything to avoid it.

There is a purpose to our suffering. But rejoicing in our suffering seems a bit insane. No, actually, it’s insane to rejoice in the sufferings of others. Paul said, We rejoice in our sufferings (Romans 5:3). By our, I’m sure he meant his own and our own. He was encouraging every believer who might suffer to learn this perspective.

Romans 5:3–5 gives us a sense of purpose in suffering. This, along with many other passages, can inspire us to have a more positive perspective relative to what we are forced to endure when we suffer. Suffering produces perseverance (NIV) or endurance (NRSV).

A Christian’s posture, especially concerning suffering, trials, tribulations, or troubles, can be undergirded by a few key passages of scripture. Jesus said, In this world you will have trouble. But take heart. I have overcome the world (John 16:33 NIV). If Christ has overcome the world, when we have faith in Christ, we too can overcome with His grace.

In Romans 8:28, we also find the correct posture to take. It says, We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. When we trust this passage of scripture, we put ourselves in a position of certainty and confidence as we face whatever might come our way. The challenge comes when we can’t imagine what good could possibly rise from the anguish of our sufferings. Other than perseverance, endurance, character development, and hope, we ask ourselves, What good is it to suffer like this?

Keep reading. The best is yet to come. Mary Rowlandson endured over eleven weeks of cruel captivity, and it gave her a new way of seeing her life and future trials. We can have this perspective too.

Think about how you have suffered. There are many types of pain, many kinds of trouble, and many times when we want to sing the blues. But I believe that as we learn to endure by God’s grace, we can gain not only a positive perspective that is rooted in faith, but we can feel triumphant. We can overcome.

The faith that we need is not only a matter of learning how to stoically grit our teeth, although that’s not always bad. We don’t have to boldly bear up under the darkness of our anguish, although there is nothing wrong with that. We are not called to just keep a stiff upper lip, although at times, that is okay. Paul calls us to accept the sufferings we are dealt, even with tears. Tears are not a sign of weakness but of pain, grief, and emotional release.

*Building a House

Where do you live? Most people will respond by picturing their house or apartment. That’s where they live. But we also live within our character. Where is our character built? It is built in our personalities, shaped by our experiences, and developed by our trials and tribulations. I live in Christianity, freedom, adulthood, and a world where I can grow deeper in my faith. I also live in a house, but my house does not make me faithful. Though my house has a unique character, it does not give me my character. It gives me a place to live out my beliefs and develop my character.

In a way, an introduction is a beginning. It sets the stage. It starts out where we live. Let’s imagine we are building a house of faith that overcomes adversity, the way a house gives us shelter and security. This will be where we live. We need to live in this house so that we can persevere in our sufferings and rejoice.

Before building a house, we need to establish and begin to provide for its utilities. We need to know how water, electrical power, and gas will be brought in. We also need to establish how it will be connected to sewage disposal—everything that is flushed or goes down the drain. We tend to take all these things for granted because in some ways, they are sort of invisible and behind the scenes or walls. We may notice these things when they are not functioning, as when the drains don’t drain.

After a hole is created and before the foundation is established, most houses will have the sewage and water pipes fixed in place. Then a concrete foundation is poured, which hides some of the infrastructure, although we can see the upper parts of the pipes above the foundation’s floor.

The first thing we see in the construction process is the arrival of the backhoe, which digs the hole from which the house will rise. It doesn’t look very welcoming, and the hole is not very pretty, but it is necessary. Now I don’t want to imply that I’ve dug a hole for myself with this introduction. I want to present the first step in building a house of faith. It’s a place to start.

Faith begins before what has come with belief. We don’t see it all the time, but it’s there. We often take for granted that it’s there working on our behalves. Sometimes we don’t even notice it.

But before we were even born, Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose from the grave. He brought salvation. The scriptures were written. Theologians and scholars developed doctrine based on those writings and their experiences. Down through the centuries, people have learned and taught the truths of faith. It’s as if a whole community had been established before we got there. Now we are in the midst of it, and we want to build our house there.

The power to overcome was around long before we needed it. Many who have gone before us have established testimonies that faith is a great enabler, source of encouragement and strength, and inspiration for hope.

The hole is there, the infrastructure for the utilities has been established, and now we are ready to pour the foundation. The chapters of this book are all inspired by what Romans 5:1–5 says.

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand; and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us. (NIV)

We will begin with faith and move on.

1. Justified by Faith

2. Peace with God

3. "We Stand in