• Everyone experiences pressure.
• Pressure causes feeling(s).
• Pressure can produce
• You decide what pressure produces in your life
• Hope Happens when God works
• 2bAnd we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
• 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings…
• You have a choice about how you respond to suffering
• If we rejoice in all God does, then rejoice in what God will do with our suffering.
• …because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
• Perseverance is the strength to hold on.
• What am I to learn
• Ask God for strength and wisdom.
• I found that God met me, exactly as Jesus had promised his disciples when he was preparing them for victimization and persecution.
• …4 perseverance, character;
• Character is who you really are under pressure.
• Are you like Jesus when you are under pressure?
• Heavenly Father, help me be like Jesus under pressure.
• … and character, hope.
• The choices you make in suffering either lead to hope or away from hope
• Claim hope that God is at work when you are under pressure.
• Even if I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me; your rod and your staff will comfort me. Starter: What pressures are you dealing with in your life right now?
Dig Deeper:
Read Romans 5:2b-4.
In your opinion, what is the best way to see as much of God’s glory (what God is doing) as possible?
In v. 3, the word “Suffering” comes from a Greek root that means “pressure.” How have you seen suffering bring pressure into a person’s life?
Have you known someone who faced pressure or suffering and rejoiced? Why did they?
What has God taught you through times of pressure and suffering? 6. How would you explain to someone the hope of Jesus that comes in suffering?