Just as Abraham's faith brought him righteousness and great blessings, those who have faith in Jesus Christ also receive righteousness and great blessings. Yet as Paul reminds us in this passage, our faith doesn't always protect us from suffering. In fact, some times we suffer because we have faith. We still live on a rebellious planet, in rebellious bodies and during a season of time in which Satan is active. So, along with blessings Paul says we can also expect "tribulations," and by that term he certainly means the things we suffer because of our faith in Christ (religious persecution, spiritual oppression, temptation, the pain of loving and serving...), but his words here are true for all the suffering this world brings upon us. In the midst of any type of trials, Paul wants us to remember that God is able to use those trials to make our faith stronger and to draw us closer to Him. This is why he says we can rejoice in or boast about our tribulation. Instead of destroying our faith, tribulation will only prove that our faith in God is genuine. Of course it pleases Him to see our faith endure a test, and He rewards us accordingly (Heb 11:1,2,6), but He already knew our faith was genuine. The person who actually discovers how real our faith is in the middle of a trial is... us. In difficult times we discover we really meant it when we surrendered to Jesus and took up our cross to follow Him... that there is within us a true faith that nothing can shake.

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