My wife and I walked into a fancy kitchen store yesterday just to look around. She’s an excellent baker, and commented as we entered, “this is like a candy store for me.” Well, we didn’t buy any candy, but she left with lots of ideas. I’ll soon be the recipient of good things coming from the oven.

Bakers only gain expertise by kneading the dough and baking the bread. Sometimes things don’t turn out as planned. The bread fails to rise or distractions lead to a scorched loaf. It’s challenging and messy and frustrating, and at times you throw dough across the room. But only dirtying up the kitchen leads to skill and expertise and hope.

Paul wrote words of encouragement to a church in the midst of the messy and frustrating: We boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

I return to this passage over and over. To know that suffering moves me toward fresh perseverance which then builds deeper character opens my eyes to the long view of life. Then to understand hope eventually emerges helps me grasp a bit more of God’s immense love toward me.

I think of the Holy Spirit like the aroma wafting from freshly baked bread (which is probably terrible theology). But as promise and joy and goodness infuse a room when bread comes from the oven, the Holy Spirit now infuses my life, strengthening and promising joy and goodness from the Lord.

Paul reminds me that my suffering—my time in the oven—pays off through perseverance, character and hope, always underscored by the Holy Spirit’s work.

Romans 5 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

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