Peace, Perseverance, and Heavenly Hope

Hello Friends,

How are you doing? Are you enjoying the summer so far? Speaking of summer, it is officially summer! As of Friday, June 20, 2025, at 9:42pm the season of summer entered our lives. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, during the summer, the earth tilts mostly toward the sun during this time which is why the sun rises early in the morning and sets late at night–giving us more time to be outside! I can’t believe that summer has finally arrived!!

Something else happened last weekend. Do you remember what or who we celebrated last week? You’re absolutely correct! We celebrated Father’s Day! Did you do anything special to celebrate your dad? Did you go out for lunch or supper? Did you make him breakfast? Did you do something fun with him? Or did you let your dad do whatever he wanted to do? Although there is a specific holiday to celebrate your dad, I think everything day we should celebrate our dad because believe it or not your dad loves you so much.

Setting all that aside, let’s focus on today’s lesson: Peace, Perseverance, and Hope. For the past several weeks we have been thinking about heaven: what it is and what the Bible teaches us about heaven. So, today we continue our examination of heaven by reading Paul’s words to the people in Rome. Let’s read what Paul has to say:

Therefore, since we have been justified through 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 boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And 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” (Romans 5:1-5).

I want to begin by asking you a question: “What kinds of things might we brag about?” We might boast in winning a sports game, or in doing well on a test, or about the things we have, or about the things we done or the places we have gone, or…maybe we boast about certain abilities. But did you know that bragging or boasting is not always a good thing? Sometimes our boasting causes hurt or pain or suffering for someone else. Have you ever hurt someone’s feelings? What types of things cause us to hurt or feel uncomfortable? In this passage, we see that going through hardship for ourselves actually helps us draw nearer to God, and receive the Holy Spirit. That can be a pretty great thing. It doesn’t make hurting any easier, but it gives us a hope that lets us get through it.

Let’s continue reading: Paul says, You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8).

Who would you be willing to suffer for? Anyone? Maybe you would do something hard to help a friend or a family member…maybe you’d give up something you like if it benefitted someone you cared about. But would you do those things for someone that was mean and hurt you? Probably not. Yet we see here that even when we do things that are wrong, God doesn’t cast us away. He loves us so much that He sent Jesus to die for us and take the blame for our sin. It would be like taking a time-out even though you did nothing wrong. That doesn’t seem right at all…but it’s exactly what Jesus did. Now, this is truly good news, and gives us a grand sense of hope.

Let’s finish reading this section: Paul says, Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation (Romans 5:9-11). 

All of us are born with sin. That’s the bad news. Even without meaning to, we do the wrong thing. But the good news is that God wants to get us back to Him. How does that happen? Through Jesus Christ our Lord. What a powerful blessing, joy, and relief it is to know that through Him we can have hope. This isn’t just hope for a one-day-faraway future in Heaven…it’s hope that now, today, we can know Jesus loves us. We can pray and live for Him anytime, with true joy and strength. That is a powerful thing.

Paul is inviting us to live our life as if heaven is in our heart. When we keep heaven in our heart, we are given a peace that reminds us to be humble and not boast, we are given a sense of perseverance to keep doing what is right even though it may be tough, and we are given a hope that grants us joy and strength in all that we do. Every day, we need to live as if heaven is in our heart, as if Jesus, the Son, is tilted toward us–shining upon us day and night. How are you going to live as if heaven is in your heart?

Let us Pray: Dear God, thank you for peace; thank you for perseverance; and thank you for hope. Remind us to find ways every day to live with heaven in our heart, in our words, and in our actions so that our life shines with the light of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Your Friend, Holy Spirit!