Suffering Produces Hope

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021

God has a plan through this process of enduring faith to make us stronger and to give us hope.
Tim Eldridge

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Hi, I’m Tim Eldridge.  Together, with my wife Sue, we lead Presence Ministries International based in England.  We host a conference called European Leaders Alliance every year, and today I want to welcome you to God Today.

 

I want to share something with you that has been profound in our own life.  It’s about hope. It says here in Romans 5, starting in verse 3, “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings because we know suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope.  Hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

 

I used to teach that when we went through suffering, the purpose was to develop character in us.  Actually, that is not the end of the verse. The end of the verse is that it produces hope in us. So character is on the way but is not the final point.  I believe that God wants to put hope into every one of His children. Hope isn’t wishful thinking, or it’s not, “I just, perhaps, hope I can get out of this situation.”  Actually, hope is anchored into a person – Jesus Christ. It says we are anchored into Him.

 

Hope is not just a nice thing, it is something – a person we can rely on when we are going through difficulties.  In my life, in our marriage, in our time together, my wife and I have stood through many different trials. One of those trials was our daughter, who at the age of 14, became ill.  She developed anorexia nervosa. She was incredibly sick and incredibly ill. She was in the hospital four different times. The fourth time she was in for 10 months. Twice we were warned by doctors that she would die because her weight was so low – she had stopped eating.

 

Many nights when I went to bed I just prayed.  My best prayer was that she wouldn’t die. God had a better plan than her just not dying.  He wanted to heal her, He wanted to deliver her, and He wanted to bring her back to Himself because she was not walking with Him.  Not only that, but He wanted to strengthen our whole family and really receive the gift of supernatural hope. We changed our mindset, we repented from the hopelessness that we felt in that situation.  It went on year after year. We knew God would heal her and might heal her, but it became “perhaps He won’t heal her”. Perhaps it won’t change. We repented of that and received supernatural hope. After six years, she had an encounter with God in her bedroom.

 

I remember two years before that, going into her bedroom, she was in the hospital, and literally praying, “Holy Spirit, will you vibrate in this space and bring healing to our daughter.”  Then, two years later when I had forgotten about that prayer, she was in that room and had an encounter with the Holy Spirit. It not only leads her on a journey of healing but actually brings her back into a relationship with Jesus, herself.  Today, she is living in another city, and she is completely healed. She has been on a journey for the last few years. She is a healthy weight and she just qualified as a nutritional therapist. Now she is helping other people with the whole issue of eating and nutrition.

 

What the devil meant for harm, God uses for good.  I want to encourage you today. Hope is not just wishful thinking though.  It is actually anchored and rooted into a person. I don’t know what your situation is, I don’t know what perseverance trial that you’re going through, but God has a plan through this process of enduring faith to make us stronger and to give us hope and to meet the person of hope which is Jesus Christ. 

 

I want to pray and end right now. Holy Spirit, will you release supernatural hope as you did for my wife and I and our family. Release it over every viewer right now. Whatever the situation – whether it is marriage, whether it is prodigal child, whether it is the financial situation. Whatever the situation it is, you are the God of hope and I pray you to reveal yourself.  In the trial of enduring faith, you come and reveal yourself as the supernatural hope giver. Amen.