Listening to yesterday’s sermon from Romans 8 regarding the greater weight of glory awaiting believers in Christ was an encouragement for us in suffering.  Putting on a scale the present sufferings, and the future glory – Paul says it isn’t even worth comparing.  Sometimes having perspective can change our mindset as much as anything can.

In Alcorn’s book “If God is Good”, he tells of a report in which researchers conducted a study on stress with Israeli soldiers. They assured one group that the march would end at a certain point, but kept the other group in the dark. Although both groups marched an identical distance, those who didn’t know how long they would march registered a much higher level of stress. Why? Because they had no hope, no tangible assurance that the forced march would end. They felt helpless, wondering when, or if, they could ever rest. Hope points to the light at the end of life’s tunnel. It not only makes the tunnel endurable, it fills the heart with anticipation of a world alive, fresh, beautiful, without pain, suffering, or war. A world without disease, without accident, without tragedy. A world without dictators or madmen. A world ruled by the only One worthy of ruling (see Revelation 5:12).

Hope does not make the sufferings of this present world go away, but it points our eyes toward the heavenly goal and prize and a steadfast determination to make it there.  You may be on the stretch run, maybe the aches and pains are surfacing, or the pressures of life and ministry are weighing heavy.  The greater weight of heavenly glory is just around the corner.  An eternal weight of glory is coming ahead.

Discussion:  How does hope help to bring perspective to real genuine hardships?  To conflicts and difficult relationships?

Is your focus on the light and temporary sufferings or the eternal weight of glory?  How can we encourage one another more to keep looking heavenward?