Readjusting available inner-man capacity

Hebrews 5:7 is a powerful, powerful verse about Jesus Christ: "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.’

Jesus Christ was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. You don’t think He was touched by the effects of living in a sin-cursed world or the emotional and psychological trauma; the rejection and alienation? He felt hurt; He felt pain, says Alex Kurz.

The next verse says: "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered."

He didn’t succumb. While He’s in pain and anguish, experiencing the trauma, you know what He chooses to do? "I’m going to learn." It’s a learning experience!

II Corinthians is probably the darkest epistle the Apostle Paul wrote; it's theme actually has to do with sufferings, tribulations and infirmities.

He tells us in the first chapter: "But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: [10] Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us."

If Paul says tribulation is ordained to be a spiritual benefit and blessing, are we going to believe what He says about it?! We have to readjust the way we think about the problems of life.

God will not remove your affliction. That’s why when Paul said three times, "Lord Jesus, please," Christ responded, "Paul, you aren’t thinking about what’s happening in your life," and He reminds Paul about the available inner-man capacity that he already had. Jesus didn’t say "no" and He didn’t say "yes"; He just said, "Paul, you’ve already got something. I don’t need to do anymore."

When bad things happen in your life, it has absolutely nothing to do with God’s displeasure. It has everything to do with God’s delight in producing something in the core of your inner man.

"So wait a minute, Paul, why do you look like a physical mess?!" Paul’s going to say, "You know what, that’s my certificate."

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Acts 14:22 says, "Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God."

It says "we must." Is that optional? It’s a reality. The sooner we accept the fact that tribulation is part and parcel of our experience and edification, the sooner we can employ the very doctrines God says we need in order to glory in and see the value, worth, profit and advantage in it.

Romans 5 starts out, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

[2] By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
[3] And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
[4] And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
[5] And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

It appears as though Paul does a 180-degree digression when he starts talking about tribulations. We kind of want to stay on the mountaintop here and Paul isn’t just grabbing us by our coattails and yanking us back to some kind of reality check.

What we’re going to find out is there’s a direct correlation and connection between the hope of the glory of God, that is going to be manifested in and through us, and tribulation.

You cannot divorce the two, hence this is a very natural progression of thought and of sound doctrine for our growth and development. So. there’s a deliberate focus now on tribulation.

He says, "Not only so, but we glory in tribulations also." Notice Paul says we glory IN it, not in spite of it! There are natural consequence that you and I face from living in a broken, sin-cursed world; the bondage of corruption that touches each and every one of us.

Whatever the troubles are, I know what culture teaches; all of the sugar-coated psychological gimmicks: "Here’s the problem over there, but what I will do over here is maintain this positive outlook on life. I’m just going to dig in, grin and bear it, and I won’t let those problems get . . . "

It’s almost like were schizophrenic. We’re going to divorce the problem and we’re just going to have this happy outlook in spite of the problems. That’s not what the verse is saying. We glory IN them. You see the difference?

The idea of glorying in something . . .  I glory in my wife. I value her, I love her, she’s remarkable in so many ways. She possesses characteristics and attributes, and I honor her. The idea of glorying in something means we have this particular point of view that recognizes the worth and the high honor.

First of all, Paul’s saying we’ve got to KNOW something. This does not come natural! How many of us, when there's a dilemma, tribulation or persecution, naturally see any value in it?! 

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Our joy, hope, patience--they’re not found in freedom FROM trouble; they’re found IN the midst of the difficulties, says Richard Jordan.

Paul doesn’t just tolerate tribulation; he says God takes this tribulation and makes it serve you. First, you’re rejoicing in hope. It’s important to understand what the hope is. The verse is telling you your hope is based in hope. Hope is the rock in which joy is rooted. It’s the soil out of which the rejoicing comes. The ground of our hope and the goal of our hope are all in Christ.

Many years ago, I discovered that when I was in need of guidance and instruction about what to do in difficult areas of life, I could sit down and read Romans 12, Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3 and find specific instructions that were specific to the point and to the issue I was dealing with.

Romans 12 is always enough. I can’t think of an issue that I’ve faced in my memory that I didn’t find the clear instructions about attitudes and actions that I should take in this specific arena that I didn’t find in Romans 12.

Romans 12 is Paul’s gathering together of the issue of, "Here’s the description of what the impact of God’s grace is designed to look like in the lives of Believers," and if you wanted to have a profile of what it is that the ministry of grace is seeking to produce in the lives of people . . . not just in doctrinal statements, but what is it supposed to look like, it’s in Romans 12.

Romans 12:12 ("Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer") is really, in a lot of ways, one of those encapsulized statements right in the middle of a passage that sort of gathers together a description of the Christian life.

The details of your service for Christ don’t really begin until you come to Chapter 12. It’s the idea of, "Okay, let’s get busy being who we are in the details of life."

Verse 12 is in the context of how we relate to other Believers. Verse 9 says, "Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good."

In other words, the focus in our relationship with others is going to be on love. Let love be the real thing. Don’t "diss" somebody when it comes to love. Be genuine.

You come to verse 12 and you’ve got this dominant theme now of love just kind of echoing in your mind when you get there. That’s why it’s essential, by the way, that you go back to verse 2 and "be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

In verse 12, under that banner of love, Paul says, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer." My attitude in it is I’m going to be rejoicing in hope, patient. I’m going to be continually, constantly in prayer.