Our Resolute Hope Podcast

Our suffering is not only for our maturity, it’s for others’ too.  Paul’s agony for the saints in Colossae had a purpose … that they might pursue Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Rejoicing in our suffering sounds absolutely impossible.  But it’s not … if we rely on His strength.  When we braid intimately with God, He doesn’t replenish our meager strength.  He gives us His instead (Isaiah 40:31).

In His grace, God allows us to share the sufferings of Jesus so that we can become like our Savior in His death.  It’s only then that we begin to truly know Him and to experience His resurrection power in our lives.

Suffering.  No one wants it, but it’s God’s gift to us wrapped in dark paper.  Paul wrote that suffering is necessary to make the word of God fully known.  It’s crucial to advance God’s kingdom … and to advance God’s kingdom in us.

Father God rolled up His sleeves to redeem us (Isaiah 52:10).  He made peace by removing every barrier that separates us from Him.  And then He made us holy and set us apart as blameless and above reproach.

Our Jesus has quite a résumé!  He is the head of the church, the beginning, and the firstborn from the dead.  He is the fullness of God in a person, the One Who makes God visible and tangible.  And … He holds the universe together, too!

Understanding the supremacy of Christ begins with recognizing His role in creation.  Our Jesus, Who came to us as the tangible, safe expression of God, was the very One Who created everything in the heavens and on the earth.

Father God qualified us to share His inheritance, delivered us from darkness, transplanted us into His Son’s kingdom, liberated us by paying the ransom, and forgave us our sins … past, present, and future.  In Christ, we have it all now!

Paul continues his encouragement by praying for the saints in Colossae … but not about specific problems or needs.  Instead he prays that they’d overflow with the knowledge of God, so that they’d choose to walk worthy of Him.

The epistle begins with Paul’s warm praise for the Colossian believers’ faith in God and love for the saints.  And the reason for this?  It’s their hope, their confident expectation, of what’s laid up for them in heaven.