Verse of the Day for October 15

Paul does not say we glory in tribulations because they feel good. He gives a reason, and the reason is a single word: knowing. He glories because he knows something about what trouble does while it lasts.

Look at the verb. Tribulation worketh patience. It works. It is not idle, even when you are. The long weeks of waiting look like nothing is happening, but Paul says something is being made in them.

Then the chain runs on, patience, experience; and experience, hope. The old word experience means something closer to proven character, the kind of person who has been tested and found still standing. Nobody gets that by reading about it. It is made in rooms where you sit and wait for your name to be called.

And notice where the whole thing begins. Verse two says we already stand in grace. The waiting does not earn the standing. You are held before the trouble starts and all the while it goes on.

If you are in a clinic corridor this week, or waiting for a visa letter, or for a result that will not come, the plastic chair you are sitting on is not wasted time. Something is at work in you that you cannot see from where you sit.

The hours you spend waiting are not subtracted from your life with God.

You can be still and still be growing.