#writingday day 082 — Persevere through sufferings: a note from June 16th, 2019
This old notes from the past gives me a warm reminder that things will be okay, always, because I know my guidance is always in time.
This notes was, as the title implies, taken from 2019. It was my reflection upon a preach from the church mass and a preach I watched from YouTube back then. I was really unconfident about my own writings; but I admired the courage. Through this work, I hope I could deliver the message of hope.
Yesterday (June 15th, 2019) I went to the church mass, and listened to the Father’s preach. It was a nice one. And I am hoping that through the message I am going to share, it would also enlighten you all who happen to stumble across this post. Disclaimer, I haven’t been writing decently these days and I am sorry if this seems insufficient. I am not usually writing about religion, and I am open for discussion for improvements — positive ones.
Actually, I felt as though the scripture reading kind of connected with each other as I read them before the mass began. In Catholic church’s mass there are 3 readings: the first one was taken from Proverbs 8:22–31. Let me excerpt the verse real quick down below:
22 “The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old.
23 I have been established from everlasting, From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.
24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, When there were no fountains abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills, I was brought forth;
26 While as yet He had not made the earth or the [a] fields,
Or the [b]primal dust of the world.
27 When He prepared the heavens, I was there,
When He drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28 When He established the clouds above,
When He strengthened the fountains of the deep,
29 When He assigned to the sea its limit,
So that the waters would not transgress His command,
When He marked out the foundations of the earth,
30 Then I was beside Him as[c]a master craftsman;
And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him,
31 Rejoicing in His inhabited world, And my delight was with the sons of men.
It was talking about God’s existing wisdom preceding even the creation of the world. He designed everything way back before the time itself existed. He thought of everything, and everything was Him; until now everything has manifested into reality.
The second reading was taken from Romans 5:1–5. Oh well this one is my favorite I even have to emphasize this. Here is the excerpt of the script:
1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
3 Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.
I remember watching the video on YouTube by Elevation Church about The Hope Cycle by Holly Furtick. As the script goes: “…but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.” I will talk further about this in correlation with the other readings.
As for the third reading, was taken from the Gospel of John 16:12–15, here goes:
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He [a]will take of Mine and declare it to you.
The Gospel talks about how God promises us to guide us through the Holy Spirit sent upon us. We shall not be lost, though God has left our side for now, He overcame death and the earthly things that’s bound with it. He is the Freedom.
That’s about the readings. Well, I am not that confident talking about Gospels, or script. I wouldn’t call myself a highly religious one. I am still learning — but I do look, search, for messages everywhere around. I always try to find meaning in everything that it becomes an automatic setting in my mind. As I read those scriptures to prepare myself for the mass, I found the personal message between the three. There’s no doubt about God’s profound wisdom and knowledge. Well in several occasion I do find it hard to actually absorb it. Being reminded about it was really good. He has planned everything thoroughly; we just have to walk and pick the best decision for ourselves. He never fails — even the bad things happened, He doesn’t fail. Being an optimist would be my specialist since I’ve encountered many circumstances that needs HOPE. To find hope, I have to constantly find the meaning of something. Well, call me an eternal optimist; that has helped me survive the years in university through the tops and bottoms (yea, not even ups and downs anymore).
Talking about hope, walking through some tough processes do require hope. Hope brings light, directs us to the goal we all aspire to, despite us really knowing what the goal is, or not. The goal we have set up might change as we are pushed to change course. And that could make us lose hope when things doesn’t go as we have planned. Just when we need it, hope seems like nowhere to be found.
Yet we should trust that God has put His wisdom throughout the way. As Holly said in her sermon, the hope we are talking about is not just usual hope. It is a special hope. We hope — and we know — that in all things we’ve done, that we are going through, God works for the good. As in suffering — or as I would preferably call it, a process — they are found everywhere; we practically get up to something undone everyday, every single occasion whether it happens around in our work, or relationships, or personal growth. Suffering is inevitable and IT COULD BE difficult. That’s the point of growth. There will be sufferings; and we are people of FAITH. Though we suffer, we have faith in God, which through His glory we are glorified as well, and we don’t mind the suffering. As we go along with the suffering at the beginning, we persevere through it.
Perseverance means loyalty; well we might not know what is going on at the moment, why works are going downhill, why our partners or our family are not working as we always want it to be, the crisis just never seem to go towards an end. But we just keep moving on, right? Through perseverance creates good character. It shapes us; meaning that we grow. We change, we see things and problems with wiser point of view. We still don’t know what’s going on, but we just keep working on it.”…and perseverance, character;…” Characters are important, it means attitude. Well now, some attitude may not always seem good along the road. But the final result should always be good. It is the ending we all are racing towards. In every obstacles, our attitude changes. In some ways I do believe that sufferings are required to remind us that we still need to fix our character.
God doesn’t just let us off the hook without making sure there are any impact to our lives. In good character, we start believing again that things are going to be alright; then when we are reminded that God’s promises are always good, we have that HOPE again. And hope, a true good one that comes from God Himself, never disappoints.
And all the suffering we must go through would not be easy if it’s not for God’s guidance, the Holy Spirit. God promises to send us a guide, a helper. We won’t be alone in this life. As long as we are heading to the designated direction while listening to the Guide, we are going to be fine. All are made possible — the strength we gain when we are exhausted, the promise that echoes in our heart that we can just keep going, the wisdom to decide in the midst of confusion, the good outcome of the process — through the work of the Holy Spirit. The problem would be, how are we sure whether we are following the right path or not? That would be how well individual’s relationship with God, how sharp our compass is. In some occasion, it takes the right attitude to be willing to listen.
Well some parts above might be inherent but, to those who happen to find this post, I hope the message I relay from the church mass’ preach can be a blessing and bring peace to troubled hearts which are fighting their battles now. These might be subtle — many of us might have known this — but some days, we need assurance, we need strength, we need to be reminded. I do hope my post here would be work of the Holy Spirit upon others to do the recalling. Whether it is tough now, or nearing the end of the race, I do always know one thing: eventually, it is always good. Amen.
