And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
Those who are justified by faith have peace with God through Jesus Christ and joy in the hope of the glory of God, and to them belongs glorying even in tribulations, sufferings and hardships. Tribulation is not strange but is appointed discipline, including severe conflicts, hard trials, opposition, affliction and suffering for Christ, which works patient endurance and steadfastness. That patience in turn works proven character and experience, and experience works hope that does not put to shame because the love of God is poured out in the heart by the Holy Ghost, resting on Christ dying for sinners while yet ungodly to justify, reconcile and save them. God leads His people through narrow places on purpose to prove and refine them as fire refines gold, forming virtues that seldom grow in prosperity and fitting character for eternal life. This work is received by faith that lays hold on Christ and stays united to God, rejoicing rather than murmuring or complaining, pressing through darkness by faith and growing stronger through every difficulty instead of being oppressed by it.
Justified Life Surrounding Verse
Those who are justified by faith have peace with God through Jesus Christ and joy in the hope of the glory of God, and to them belongs also glorying in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience works experience, and experience works hope. That justified standing includes access by faith into the grace wherein believers stand, with rejoicing in hope of the glory of God as the setting in which suffering produces patience and patience produces experience and experience produces hope. Relief and rest and peace are found in and through Christ alone by walking by faith and not by sight. Faith laying hold of the fullness of blessings in Christ and staying united to God is the way this work happens.
Rejoicing is in hope and not in feeling, in the hope of the glory of God. When feeling is lacking believers still believe after confession of sin that God has forgiven and that Christ receives the sinner whether feeling is present or not. They look away from self to the might of God's grace and the compassion of Christ, being made right with God by faith and not by feeling. When feeling is not as wanted there is no flying into impatience and speaking harsh and unkind words, for harsh speech shows Satan's attributes, denies God and grieves His heart while heavenly intelligences watch the battle, and patience, experience and hope are to be striven for with all God-given powers and energies by beholding Jesus, for by beholding change comes.
Keeping eyes fixed on the Saviour and trusting His power fills believers with security, peace, a sweet sense of forgiveness, and Christ's righteousness becoming their own through the Holy Spirit given to them. In that state the heart sounds praise and gratitude to the Redeemer, as part of Christ's provision for spiritual strength. As living stones built on Christ the chief cornerstone, believers receive support from the foundation on which they rest and through connection with Him are made able to serve God acceptably, giving cause to sing of mercy and tell of power. The hope to which patience and experience lead does not put to shame or disappoint because the love of God is poured out in the heart by the Holy Ghost given to believers.
That hope rests on God proving His love in that while people were still sinners and ungodly Christ died for them. Being justified by His blood they shall be saved from wrath, and being reconciled by His death they shall be saved by His life, to joy in God having received the atonement, belonging to being justified freely by grace through redemption in Christ and set free from bondage to sin and Satan to mastery over self. Therefore obedient children do not walk a sorrowful way wet with tears, but keep His commandments, abide in His love, bear much fruit, and have Christ's joy remain in them until their joy is full, and when Satan throws his dark shadow across the path they do not look at it or talk of his power and their hard time, but press through it by faith laying hold of Jesus and speaking faith and not doubt, because Christ has bought and freed them. The verse belongs to the beginning of the true experience of the child of God, when a person honest in heart is drawn to Bible truth, reads, marks, learns and inwardly digests it, prays, sees Christ's sacrifice made in his behalf to bear transgression and iniquity and bring peace and healing, is convicted and troubled under condemnation, receives light from the Spirit to understand the Word, receives truth into the heart until thoughts and affections and powers are brought into obedience to Christ, and submits the will to have the whole being perfected, therein rejoicing even in suffering because suffering develops endurance.
Glorying in Tribulation
Believers can glory, rejoice and be cheerful even in tribulations, sufferings, hardships and troubles, knowing that tribulation works patience. Those who have peace with God through faith rejoice even in trials rather than fainting, complaining, murmuring or finding fault, and difficulties that test faith are not to be shunned because God is the strength of believers in every trial. For ministers and laborers this is especially direct: severe conflicts and arduous labor are not reasons to faint or complain, for enduring them builds patience, while shrinking from hardship and complaining makes God's servants weak and ineffective.
Tribulation in the verse includes severe conflicts, arduous labor, hard trials, opposition, bereavement and affliction. It is suffering for Christ as a trial of faith, in which Christians glory as they endure for Him. Hard trials develop patient endurance, and that endurance develops proven character.
Tribulation is not strange but was plainly foretold and belongs to moral discipline necessary for complete spiritual education. No pure, noble character is formed without disappointment and self-denial, and those who accept Christ must not expect all hardship removed from the path but must willingly share in His suffering.
A careless, indifferent state that cannot endure temptation or resist the enemy does not endure this trial of faith or glory in tribulation. Brief efforts to gain victory followed by returning to indifference do not show that faith has endured its trial, and falling back into careless indifference and failing to resist temptation is not glorying in tribulation.
Growth Through Suffering
Tribulation works patience, so suffering itself develops patient endurance and steadfastness. Hardship can therefore be met with joy, because what is endured forms persevering effort and steady reliance on divine strength rather than pride. Trying hindrances and lessons are permitted to prove people, and to those who refuse to let go they prove a blessing that gives opportunity to redeem the past and, when well learned, brings help in due time. Sincere prayers offered in loneliness, weariness and distress are answered for good, even when not as expected, placing the one praying closer to the light and less confident in self.
Patience in turn works experience, so endurance develops proven character and tested experience. That tested character is refined as by fire, and when its lessons are learned help comes in due time. The work is done while faith lays hold of the fullness of blessing and stays united to God, since separation through unbelief turns trial into faultfinding and accusation instead. Affliction borne in this way also yields the peaceable fruits of right living, an experience worth its painful cost.
Experience in turn works hope, and that hope does not put to shame or disappoint. It belongs to those made right by faith who have peace through Jesus Christ, entry by faith into grace, and joy in hope of the glory of God. Its certainty rests on the love of God poured out and shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost given to believers.
Godliness grows further out of that patience, having the spirit and likeness of the character of Jesus Christ. Tribulation therefore has a refining, character-forming purpose, with patience as a step in spiritual growth toward that likeness. Raising people to that divine ideal is the one end of all God's dealings and of the whole plan of salvation.
Holding faith with patience and hope produces the richest experience. That experience makes believers a light to the world, so that others seeing their good works glorify God. It leads on to the kingdom of glory, where faces are illuminated with the glory of God and shine with the image of Jesus. There all sorrows are ended and believers are free indeed, with no more sorrow and sin but joy, eternal joy, through eternal ages.
God's Design in Trials
God leads believers through narrow, hard places on purpose, ordaining or permitting conflicts, trying hindrances, lessons, difficulties and perplexities to prove His people and to perfect Christian character unto eternal life. Trials are permitted for a purpose, so that suffering builds patient endurance, endurance builds proven character, and character builds hope. Trials refine God's workers as fire refines gold, and when their lessons are learned God brings help in due time. They serve as a pruning process that strengthens determination and helps gain victories over self, preparing for a pure and holy character, and they are to be used for growth rather than allowed to oppress or destroy.
No pure, noble character is formed without disappointment and self-denial, for tribulation belongs to the moral discipline necessary for complete spiritual education and was plainly foretold, so those who accept Christ must not expect all hardship removed from the path but must willingly share in His suffering. Opposition and tribulation prove an advantage because they develop a class of Christian virtues which seldom grow in prosperity and sunshine. Faith, patience, forbearance, heavenly-mindedness and increasing trust in providence are fruits that blossom and mature amid clouds of darkness, storm and tempest. Like a forest tree standing alone and exposed to fierce wind and storm, the believer struck by gales strikes roots deep and spreads branches in every direction and becomes more beautiful and strong by withstanding storm and tempest. Being deprived of sympathy and human support drives the helpless soul to reach up in supplication to God and hang upon the Redeemer, and the help heaven sends is just what is needed.
Affliction also produces the peaceable fruits of righteousness, worth its painful cost. Sincere prayers offered in loneliness, weariness and distress are answered not always as expected but for good, to save the one praying and to honor God, by placing them closer to the church and to the light, making them less confident in self and more trusting toward others God is using, until through trial they gain the peaceable fruits of right living. Conflict brings believers into the audience-chamber of the Most High to seek counsel of One infinite in wisdom, while wickedness progresses and difficulties are certain. Trials well borne develop steadfastness of character and precious spiritual graces, and the perfect fruit of faith, meekness and love often matures best amid storm-clouds and darkness and strengthens the spiritual life.
The eye of God is upon those who suffer, and He uses difficulties to leave them in a more favorable position than they were found. Trials lead believers into right relationship toward God, with minds centered on the great privileges they have through Christ Jesus our Lord, and by means of trials God works to perfect in them a Christian character that qualifies and fits them through the righteousness of Jesus Christ to enjoy God's presence in the heavenly kingdom after their work on earth is ended. To those who refuse to lose hold on the work, trying hindrances prove a blessing giving opportunity to redeem the past, and when well learned they bring help in due time. Glorying in tribulation means receiving heavy trials, opposition, bereavement and affliction as valuable because Jesus passed through them all and because tribulation works patience, and through patience faith and hope in all the changing scenes of life form character for everlasting life. Everything works together for good to those that love God, so the advantage is not confined to this short life but reaches into eternal ages, with every scene of this life part of education and character building with solid timbers for both this life and eternal life, and as the close of earth's history nears believers either advance more rapidly in Christian growth or retrograde just as decidedly.
God intends each individual to bear the burdens He appoints, and human wisdom must not shoulder them for him, because doing so leaves God no room to work for that person. Every encounter with difficulties and every blast of adversity makes a person abler and more efficient, for tribulations are God's chosen instruments, His methods of discipline and His appointed conditions of success and victory. Knowing duty and doing it without anxious care for anything beyond it leaves events with God, while making careful provision for self-indulgence and shunning toils and trials brings no happiness and no success in life, no great results, and no strength or will or power of endurance.
Faithful Response to Hardship
Genuine faith is able to rejoice in tribulation and remain steady under adversity instead of depending on favorable circumstances, because tribulation produces patience, patience leads to experience, experience to hope, and that hope does not disappoint or bring shame since God's love is poured into the heart. This work takes place when faith lays hold of the fullness of blessings in Christ and stays united to God, while unbelief separates from God so that trials fail to work patience, experience and hope and instead cultivate faultfinding, censuring and accusing of fellow believers. Those who have appropriated Christ to themselves and know they have a risen Lord whose life is a quickening power in their lives show that knowledge to the world by glorying in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces patience leading on to experience and to a hope that does not put to shame because God's love is poured out in the heart by the Holy Spirit given to them. Truth enables them to stand the test of trial as Christ endured, and because God hears them His power quickens their hearts and lifts them above despondency so they can be cheerful in tribulation.
For ministers and laborers, severe conflicts, arduous labor and hardships are not reasons to faint or complain, but enduring them builds patience and endurance, which lead to experience and hope, with God's love poured into the heart through the Holy Spirit. Shrinking from hardship and complaining makes God's servants weak and ineffective. Trials are to be met with rejoicing rather than complaining, because the eye of God is upon those who suffer and He uses difficulties to leave them in a more favorable position, leading them into right relationship toward God with minds centered on privileges through Christ and perfecting Christian character to qualify and fit them through Christ's righteousness to enjoy God's presence in the heavenly kingdom. When faith is tested the result should not be murmuring, fretfulness, discouragement, unkindness or faultfinding, but patience as evidence of being God's sons and daughters, with Jesus helping them endure as they look to God for support and strength in every emergency.
Rejoicing is in hope and not in feeling, in the hope of the glory of God, so when feeling is not as wanted there is no flying into impatience and speaking harsh and unkind words that show Satan's attributes, deny God and grieve His heart while heavenly intelligences and the whole heavenly universe watch the battle, with Christ's crucifixion marks showing being graven upon the palms of His hands. Patience, experience and hope are to be striven for with all the powers and energies God has given, and that striving is beholding Jesus, for by beholding change comes. Those who have the Holy Spirit rejoice even in troubles and have joy in Christ, grounded in God proving His love in that while people were still sinners Christ died for them, so obedient children do not walk a sorrowful way wet with tears but keep His commandments, abide in His love, bear much fruit and have Christ's joy remain in them until their joy is full. When Satan throws his dark shadow across the path they do not look at it or talk about his power and their hard time, but press through it by faith laying hold of Jesus and speaking faith and not doubt, because Christ has bought and freed them.
This is true conversion, a sinner brought to God through Christ learning to know Christ by experience, having peace with God through Jesus Christ and access into grace and rejoicing in hope and even in tribulations through the chain of patience, experience and hope sustained by God's love filling the heart through the Holy Spirit. Those who have this experience must deal tenderly with others striving for the crown of life, helping souls in need in love and tenderness, bearing one another's woes, giving and receiving compassionate words of hope and courage in turn, and encouraging the young to seek a deeper Christian life by helping them know Christ as peace, joy, strength, shield, Guide and Counsellor, the source of all comfort, all and in all. The verse calls those who have made many mistakes by trying to manage matters themselves to become spiritually minded, be drawn closer to Christ, throw themselves on His mercy as the One who gave His life to save them, and in His strength rise with noble purpose, honor God and redeem the past, since there is now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus who walk after the Spirit. Trial develops patient endurance, endurance develops proven character, and proven character develops hope that does not disappoint because God's love is poured into the heart by the Holy Spirit given to believers.
Pressure from the enemy awakens gratitude to God, leads to more secure reliance on His strength, and forms experience and character, with tribulation producing patience and persevering effort and victories gained through God's strength deepening dependence on Him rather than pride. Difficulties and perplexities become occasions to learn Christ's will and way more fully and to know and trust Him, and as believers pray and trust and exercise faith through these experiences their faith grows. Paul's character was perfected through trial, and obstacles and perplexities call for trust in God and firmness through which people develop strength. Tribulations and difficulties are to be used for growth rather than allowed to oppress or destroy, serving as a pruning process that strengthens determination and helps gain victories over self in preparation for a pure and holy character.
Those who are justified by faith have peace with God through Jesus Christ and joy in the hope of the glory of God, and to them belongs glorying even in tribulations, sufferings and hardships. Tribulation is not strange but is appointed discipline, including severe conflicts, hard trials, opposition, affliction and suffering for Christ, which works patient endurance and steadfastness. That patience in turn works proven character and experience, and experience works hope that does not put to shame because the love of God is poured out in the heart by the Holy Ghost, resting on Christ dying for sinners while yet ungodly to justify, reconcile and save them. God leads His people through narrow places on purpose to prove and refine them as fire refines gold, forming virtues that seldom grow in prosperity and fitting character for eternal life. This work is received by faith that lays hold on Christ and stays united to God, rejoicing rather than murmuring or complaining, pressing through darkness by faith and growing stronger through every difficulty instead of being oppressed by it.
Justified Life Surrounding Verse
Those who are justified by faith have peace with God through Jesus Christ and joy in the hope of the glory of God, and to them belongs also glorying in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience works experience, and experience works hope. That justified standing includes access by faith into the grace wherein believers stand, with rejoicing in hope of the glory of God as the setting in which suffering produces patience and patience produces experience and experience produces hope. Relief and rest and peace are found in and through Christ alone by walking by faith and not by sight. Faith laying hold of the fullness of blessings in Christ and staying united to God is the way this work happens.
Rejoicing is in hope and not in feeling, in the hope of the glory of God. When feeling is lacking believers still believe after confession of sin that God has forgiven and that Christ receives the sinner whether feeling is present or not. They look away from self to the might of God's grace and the compassion of Christ, being made right with God by faith and not by feeling. When feeling is not as wanted there is no flying into impatience and speaking harsh and unkind words, for harsh speech shows Satan's attributes, denies God and grieves His heart while heavenly intelligences watch the battle, and patience, experience and hope are to be striven for with all God-given powers and energies by beholding Jesus, for by beholding change comes.
Keeping eyes fixed on the Saviour and trusting His power fills believers with security, peace, a sweet sense of forgiveness, and Christ's righteousness becoming their own through the Holy Spirit given to them. In that state the heart sounds praise and gratitude to the Redeemer, as part of Christ's provision for spiritual strength. As living stones built on Christ the chief cornerstone, believers receive support from the foundation on which they rest and through connection with Him are made able to serve God acceptably, giving cause to sing of mercy and tell of power. The hope to which patience and experience lead does not put to shame or disappoint because the love of God is poured out in the heart by the Holy Ghost given to believers.
That hope rests on God proving His love in that while people were still sinners and ungodly Christ died for them. Being justified by His blood they shall be saved from wrath, and being reconciled by His death they shall be saved by His life, to joy in God having received the atonement, belonging to being justified freely by grace through redemption in Christ and set free from bondage to sin and Satan to mastery over self. Therefore obedient children do not walk a sorrowful way wet with tears, but keep His commandments, abide in His love, bear much fruit, and have Christ's joy remain in them until their joy is full, and when Satan throws his dark shadow across the path they do not look at it or talk of his power and their hard time, but press through it by faith laying hold of Jesus and speaking faith and not doubt, because Christ has bought and freed them. The verse belongs to the beginning of the true experience of the child of God, when a person honest in heart is drawn to Bible truth, reads, marks, learns and inwardly digests it, prays, sees Christ's sacrifice made in his behalf to bear transgression and iniquity and bring peace and healing, is convicted and troubled under condemnation, receives light from the Spirit to understand the Word, receives truth into the heart until thoughts and affections and powers are brought into obedience to Christ, and submits the will to have the whole being perfected, therein rejoicing even in suffering because suffering develops endurance.
Glorying in Tribulation
Believers can glory, rejoice and be cheerful even in tribulations, sufferings, hardships and troubles, knowing that tribulation works patience. Those who have peace with God through faith rejoice even in trials rather than fainting, complaining, murmuring or finding fault, and difficulties that test faith are not to be shunned because God is the strength of believers in every trial. For ministers and laborers this is especially direct: severe conflicts and arduous labor are not reasons to faint or complain, for enduring them builds patience, while shrinking from hardship and complaining makes God's servants weak and ineffective.
Tribulation in the verse includes severe conflicts, arduous labor, hard trials, opposition, bereavement and affliction. It is suffering for Christ as a trial of faith, in which Christians glory as they endure for Him. Hard trials develop patient endurance, and that endurance develops proven character.
Tribulation is not strange but was plainly foretold and belongs to moral discipline necessary for complete spiritual education. No pure, noble character is formed without disappointment and self-denial, and those who accept Christ must not expect all hardship removed from the path but must willingly share in His suffering.
A careless, indifferent state that cannot endure temptation or resist the enemy does not endure this trial of faith or glory in tribulation. Brief efforts to gain victory followed by returning to indifference do not show that faith has endured its trial, and falling back into careless indifference and failing to resist temptation is not glorying in tribulation.
Growth Through Suffering
Tribulation works patience, so suffering itself develops patient endurance and steadfastness. Hardship can therefore be met with joy, because what is endured forms persevering effort and steady reliance on divine strength rather than pride. Trying hindrances and lessons are permitted to prove people, and to those who refuse to let go they prove a blessing that gives opportunity to redeem the past and, when well learned, brings help in due time. Sincere prayers offered in loneliness, weariness and distress are answered for good, even when not as expected, placing the one praying closer to the light and less confident in self.
Patience in turn works experience, so endurance develops proven character and tested experience. That tested character is refined as by fire, and when its lessons are learned help comes in due time. The work is done while faith lays hold of the fullness of blessing and stays united to God, since separation through unbelief turns trial into faultfinding and accusation instead. Affliction borne in this way also yields the peaceable fruits of right living, an experience worth its painful cost.
Experience in turn works hope, and that hope does not put to shame or disappoint. It belongs to those made right by faith who have peace through Jesus Christ, entry by faith into grace, and joy in hope of the glory of God. Its certainty rests on the love of God poured out and shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost given to believers.
Godliness grows further out of that patience, having the spirit and likeness of the character of Jesus Christ. Tribulation therefore has a refining, character-forming purpose, with patience as a step in spiritual growth toward that likeness. Raising people to that divine ideal is the one end of all God's dealings and of the whole plan of salvation.
Holding faith with patience and hope produces the richest experience. That experience makes believers a light to the world, so that others seeing their good works glorify God. It leads on to the kingdom of glory, where faces are illuminated with the glory of God and shine with the image of Jesus. There all sorrows are ended and believers are free indeed, with no more sorrow and sin but joy, eternal joy, through eternal ages.
God's Design in Trials
God leads believers through narrow, hard places on purpose, ordaining or permitting conflicts, trying hindrances, lessons, difficulties and perplexities to prove His people and to perfect Christian character unto eternal life. Trials are permitted for a purpose, so that suffering builds patient endurance, endurance builds proven character, and character builds hope. Trials refine God's workers as fire refines gold, and when their lessons are learned God brings help in due time. They serve as a pruning process that strengthens determination and helps gain victories over self, preparing for a pure and holy character, and they are to be used for growth rather than allowed to oppress or destroy.
No pure, noble character is formed without disappointment and self-denial, for tribulation belongs to the moral discipline necessary for complete spiritual education and was plainly foretold, so those who accept Christ must not expect all hardship removed from the path but must willingly share in His suffering. Opposition and tribulation prove an advantage because they develop a class of Christian virtues which seldom grow in prosperity and sunshine. Faith, patience, forbearance, heavenly-mindedness and increasing trust in providence are fruits that blossom and mature amid clouds of darkness, storm and tempest. Like a forest tree standing alone and exposed to fierce wind and storm, the believer struck by gales strikes roots deep and spreads branches in every direction and becomes more beautiful and strong by withstanding storm and tempest. Being deprived of sympathy and human support drives the helpless soul to reach up in supplication to God and hang upon the Redeemer, and the help heaven sends is just what is needed.
Affliction also produces the peaceable fruits of righteousness, worth its painful cost. Sincere prayers offered in loneliness, weariness and distress are answered not always as expected but for good, to save the one praying and to honor God, by placing them closer to the church and to the light, making them less confident in self and more trusting toward others God is using, until through trial they gain the peaceable fruits of right living. Conflict brings believers into the audience-chamber of the Most High to seek counsel of One infinite in wisdom, while wickedness progresses and difficulties are certain. Trials well borne develop steadfastness of character and precious spiritual graces, and the perfect fruit of faith, meekness and love often matures best amid storm-clouds and darkness and strengthens the spiritual life.
The eye of God is upon those who suffer, and He uses difficulties to leave them in a more favorable position than they were found. Trials lead believers into right relationship toward God, with minds centered on the great privileges they have through Christ Jesus our Lord, and by means of trials God works to perfect in them a Christian character that qualifies and fits them through the righteousness of Jesus Christ to enjoy God's presence in the heavenly kingdom after their work on earth is ended. To those who refuse to lose hold on the work, trying hindrances prove a blessing giving opportunity to redeem the past, and when well learned they bring help in due time. Glorying in tribulation means receiving heavy trials, opposition, bereavement and affliction as valuable because Jesus passed through them all and because tribulation works patience, and through patience faith and hope in all the changing scenes of life form character for everlasting life. Everything works together for good to those that love God, so the advantage is not confined to this short life but reaches into eternal ages, with every scene of this life part of education and character building with solid timbers for both this life and eternal life, and as the close of earth's history nears believers either advance more rapidly in Christian growth or retrograde just as decidedly.
God intends each individual to bear the burdens He appoints, and human wisdom must not shoulder them for him, because doing so leaves God no room to work for that person. Every encounter with difficulties and every blast of adversity makes a person abler and more efficient, for tribulations are God's chosen instruments, His methods of discipline and His appointed conditions of success and victory. Knowing duty and doing it without anxious care for anything beyond it leaves events with God, while making careful provision for self-indulgence and shunning toils and trials brings no happiness and no success in life, no great results, and no strength or will or power of endurance.
Faithful Response to Hardship
Genuine faith is able to rejoice in tribulation and remain steady under adversity instead of depending on favorable circumstances, because tribulation produces patience, patience leads to experience, experience to hope, and that hope does not disappoint or bring shame since God's love is poured into the heart. This work takes place when faith lays hold of the fullness of blessings in Christ and stays united to God, while unbelief separates from God so that trials fail to work patience, experience and hope and instead cultivate faultfinding, censuring and accusing of fellow believers. Those who have appropriated Christ to themselves and know they have a risen Lord whose life is a quickening power in their lives show that knowledge to the world by glorying in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces patience leading on to experience and to a hope that does not put to shame because God's love is poured out in the heart by the Holy Spirit given to them. Truth enables them to stand the test of trial as Christ endured, and because God hears them His power quickens their hearts and lifts them above despondency so they can be cheerful in tribulation.
For ministers and laborers, severe conflicts, arduous labor and hardships are not reasons to faint or complain, but enduring them builds patience and endurance, which lead to experience and hope, with God's love poured into the heart through the Holy Spirit. Shrinking from hardship and complaining makes God's servants weak and ineffective. Trials are to be met with rejoicing rather than complaining, because the eye of God is upon those who suffer and He uses difficulties to leave them in a more favorable position, leading them into right relationship toward God with minds centered on privileges through Christ and perfecting Christian character to qualify and fit them through Christ's righteousness to enjoy God's presence in the heavenly kingdom. When faith is tested the result should not be murmuring, fretfulness, discouragement, unkindness or faultfinding, but patience as evidence of being God's sons and daughters, with Jesus helping them endure as they look to God for support and strength in every emergency.
Rejoicing is in hope and not in feeling, in the hope of the glory of God, so when feeling is not as wanted there is no flying into impatience and speaking harsh and unkind words that show Satan's attributes, deny God and grieve His heart while heavenly intelligences and the whole heavenly universe watch the battle, with Christ's crucifixion marks showing being graven upon the palms of His hands. Patience, experience and hope are to be striven for with all the powers and energies God has given, and that striving is beholding Jesus, for by beholding change comes. Those who have the Holy Spirit rejoice even in troubles and have joy in Christ, grounded in God proving His love in that while people were still sinners Christ died for them, so obedient children do not walk a sorrowful way wet with tears but keep His commandments, abide in His love, bear much fruit and have Christ's joy remain in them until their joy is full. When Satan throws his dark shadow across the path they do not look at it or talk about his power and their hard time, but press through it by faith laying hold of Jesus and speaking faith and not doubt, because Christ has bought and freed them.
This is true conversion, a sinner brought to God through Christ learning to know Christ by experience, having peace with God through Jesus Christ and access into grace and rejoicing in hope and even in tribulations through the chain of patience, experience and hope sustained by God's love filling the heart through the Holy Spirit. Those who have this experience must deal tenderly with others striving for the crown of life, helping souls in need in love and tenderness, bearing one another's woes, giving and receiving compassionate words of hope and courage in turn, and encouraging the young to seek a deeper Christian life by helping them know Christ as peace, joy, strength, shield, Guide and Counsellor, the source of all comfort, all and in all. The verse calls those who have made many mistakes by trying to manage matters themselves to become spiritually minded, be drawn closer to Christ, throw themselves on His mercy as the One who gave His life to save them, and in His strength rise with noble purpose, honor God and redeem the past, since there is now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus who walk after the Spirit. Trial develops patient endurance, endurance develops proven character, and proven character develops hope that does not disappoint because God's love is poured into the heart by the Holy Spirit given to believers.
Pressure from the enemy awakens gratitude to God, leads to more secure reliance on His strength, and forms experience and character, with tribulation producing patience and persevering effort and victories gained through God's strength deepening dependence on Him rather than pride. Difficulties and perplexities become occasions to learn Christ's will and way more fully and to know and trust Him, and as believers pray and trust and exercise faith through these experiences their faith grows. Paul's character was perfected through trial, and obstacles and perplexities call for trust in God and firmness through which people develop strength. Tribulations and difficulties are to be used for growth rather than allowed to oppress or destroy, serving as a pruning process that strengthens determination and helps gain victories over self in preparation for a pure and holy character.