For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
—Romans 8:18
We live in a broken world. The planet is in pain, the cosmos is in chaos, and there are broken lives all around us. It’s not only the great global and national troubles, but also the personal tragedies that come close to home: the parent who buries a child, the divorce that rips a family apart, the diagnosis that blindsides a body. It is a broken, broken world.
And yet the apostle Paul, a man who knew real suffering, writes, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Don’t rush past that. Paul isn’t minimizing the pain. He’s weighing it. He puts all the suffering of this present time on one side of the scale and the coming glory on the other, and the glory is so heavy that the suffering can’t even be compared to it.
Notice that word “consider.” It’s an accounting term, a deliberate calculation. Paul isn’t denying his wounds; he’s doing the math of faith. He looks honestly at the affliction and then looks at the glory and concludes the two aren’t in the same category.
Now here’s a question worth asking. At what times in your life have you grown the most spiritually, felt closest to God? I’d guess it wasn’t in the easy seasons. God uses the hard times. Think of an athlete in training, to grow stronger, the muscle must be torn down first. It hurts, but it builds. What’s true for the body physically is even truer for the soul. God uses the pain and pressure of our lives to strengthen us and make us more like Jesus.
But this verse points to something even bigger than present growth, future glory. When Christ comes again, all the brokenness will end. The kingdom of God will cover the universe as the waters cover the sea. Those of us who are in Christ will be with Him forever. We’ll be given brand-new bodies and a brand-new life, no longer subject to the futility of this groaning world.
Until that day, the rain still falls on the just and the unjust. Christians are not exempt from tragedy. But we suffer differently, because we suffer with hope. We can get through the pain of this present time because we’ve glimpsed the glory of the time to come.
I know you’ve walked through hard, painful seasons, maybe some you didn’t think you’d survive. But look: God saw you through. And the suffering, real as it was, is not worth comparing to what He has prepared for you.
So don’t pray only for smooth sailing. Ask God to help you trust Him in every challenge, to recognize His mercy in the middle of it, and to keep one eye fixed on the glory ahead. With each blast of life’s furnace, He is refining you for eternity. The pain is for a moment; the glory is forever.
GOD USES THE HARD TIMES TO STRENGTHEN YOU, AND THE GLORY TO COME IS NOT EVEN WORTH COMPARING TO TODAY’S SUFFERING.
