God's Patience=Our Hope

Romans 15:4

4. For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and the comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

 “For whatever things were written before”   The Bible is a book of prophecies forth telling the coming of the messiah who would suffer on behalf of  sin-fallen mankind. I recently asked some guys why they thought the Bible was the inspired Word of God.  After all, other books claim the same.  The answer is in the countless prophecies that have been given and fulfilled.  Just read through Isaiah 53 and 54 and Psalm 22. 

“were written for our learning”   God wants us to learn the story.  As we see the big picture of salvation our view of God’s character begins to clarify.  Our faith is not built on fuzzy feelings and staring at our belly buttons.  When we see Christ in the scriptures our faith ignites and we see that He has saved us to His mission in the world.  Many have not learned this reality yet.  They still think the answer to their joy, even as Christians, is to live for themselves. 

“that we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope”  It doesn’t take long as you read through the scriptures to see the perfect patience of God displayed through His Son Jesus.  The Christian message is a message of patience and hope.  It's not a message of self atonement and guilt trips.  Some people will listen to a sermon that is not centered on Jesus at all and will come away saying "wow, that was great" because they haven't learned the scriptures and that platitudes of self-righteousness and self-sufficiency are traps.  Patience and hope are displaying reflections of Jesus.  Our whole lives Jesus has been offering us the most beautiful song for us to play with our lives, but there is just so much white noise out there.  When I look into the scriptures a calming sense of hope and peace invade my noise.  I picture my life as a pond that is easily disturbed, and it isn’t until it becomes calm that I can see my reflection again.  It’s like that with the scriptures. When I look in and see Jesus once again, I then can see He has patience and I therefore can have hope.  This affects the way I relate to others in the world.  As I see the patience of Jesus in dealing and bearing with my own sin, my heart is enlarged towards the people in my life.