Today I feel that the Holy Spirit is guiding me to start a new series about perhaps one of the most ubiquitous topics that we face on a day-to-day basis. Specifically, this topic focuses on both suffering and perseverance and their critical importance in our lives, particularly as Christians living in an increasingly broken world. Throughout this first entry (1 of 4 in series) I will attempt to provide linkages between suffering and perseverance, relying on God’s Word, in order to emphasize their respective levels of significance in the Christian life.
To begin, I will identify what the Scriptures tell us regarding the value that suffering has in the Christian life.
The relevant Scriptural Text here comes from Romans 5:3-5 where it tells us the following:
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 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.
Perhaps one of the biggest stumbling blocks towards those entering into a relationship with God through Jesus are derived from religion. From my personal observations, a consistently communicated message towards this topic of discussion is, “I’m not religious, but…”. It appears that being religious is very stigmatized throughout an increasingly pluralistic western society. This is a real tragedy particularly for those living their entire lives afraid of entering into a personal relationship with God under the false impression that religion is somehow a necessary step in doing so. 
Theological Reflections 