Verse of the Day 5/9

 

Verse of  the Day 5/2

 

Romans 5:4-5   and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  English Standard Version (ESV)

 

As you read through the Bible, it is a good idea to pay attention to the "tense" of the word, the verbs, the action words.  You will find past tense, present  tense, future tense and also the "perfect tense" which is  ongoing.  Perhaps the best example of the perfect tense in use is in Matthew 7:7 where we find ask, seek, knock, all in the perfect tense which literally means keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking.

 

In today's passage in verse 8 we read where God demonstrates (ongoing) His love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us, past tense, once and for all.  In today's verses we read that God's love has been "poured into our hearts".  It was an act in the past, in our salvation, but one that carries on and gives us hope. 

 

John Piper writes, "In other words, the goal of everything God takes us through is hope. He wants us to feel unwaveringly hopeful through all tribulations.  But how can we?  Paul answers in the next line: "Because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:5). God's love has been poured into our hearts. The tense of this verb means that God's love was poured out in our hearts in the past (at our conversion) and is still present and active.

 

You may be facing challenges today, if so, pray for endurance, knowing, as today's verses indicate "endurance produces character, and character hope."  We all need hope, as my son Jeff says "hope is my favorite thing to have", may you have it today, in Christ.

 

Blessings,

 

Mike

 

Romans 5:3-8 The Message (MSG)

^3-5 There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

^6-8 Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

 

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