Romans 15:4For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
The walk of a Christian is not an easy one. It would be so great if we did not have to deal with the deception and the constant pull of the devil, who seeks to kill and destroy us by making us weak. He first has to weaken us so that he can kill us off. The devil came to kill, steal and destroy, while Jesus came to bring life and joy, heal and restore and set the captives free. But in this tension between the world of the inner man (in which I delight in the law of God) and the flesh, which is made prisoner to the law of sin in my body, we have to keep going.
But it is more than keeping going, it is the desire and the determination to honour Christ in all I do. The word here shows us that the scriptures – everything that has been written in the Bible is to teach us and encourage us and to give us hope., while we endure. Endurance means to keep on going even when the going is tough. What do they say? “When the going gets tough, the tough get going”. And so we are told to endure but we do not have to do it on our own. The scriptures are there to encourage us. The best thing to do when you are feeling down is to go back to the word of God and to read the scriptures. It is a great habit to develop. Satan will try everything to keep you away from the scriptures. Because he does not want you encouraged. He wants you depressed.
And at the end of all this enduring and needing encouragement from the word of God, we have hope. Perhaps we underplay hope in the Christian community. Paul speaks a lot about hope, but I hardly ever hear it at church. Who ever preaches on hope.
We have a hope of an eternity with God. But our hope is founded on Jesus, who was perfect in every way, and in whom was no sin found, nor was there any guile or malice. He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world and he is our hope. We place our hope in him. Why do we need to read the Bible? Because we have a road to walk that requires endurance. We are told that the world will hate us because it hated Jesus. We are in the world but we are not part of the world. But we have a hope, and we know that whenever we struggle, the scriptures have been written to teach us and to encourage us and to make the hope brighter.