Romans 5:3–5 + This Is Happiness by Niall Williams

How do we keep growing when following Jesus has become familiar? How do we remain faithful when life doesn’t turn out the way we expected?

In this six-episode series of the Be Still podcast, Still Becoming: Six Conversations about Spiritual Maturity, Lisa explores the ways God may be asking us to keep growing—not simply so we can follow Jesus faithfully for most of our lives, but so we can finish well.

Because life can test our faith in ways we never anticipated. When our hearts break, our stories take unexpected turns, and God doesn’t give us the answers we want, what happens to our faith? Through Scripture, great books, and honest reflection, Lisa explores what it means to grow in faith, embrace spiritual maturity, and remain faithful to Jesus through every season of life.

What if spiritual maturity changes not only what we pray in suffering, but also how we understand suffering itself?

In this episode, Lisa explores what it means to suffer differently as a Christian. Drawing from Romans 5, the Catholic understanding of redemptive suffering, and personal experience of what feels like unanswered prayer, she considers how suffering can produce endurance, character, and hope—and how the pain we would never have chosen can become an offering when it is united to Christ.

Perhaps the goal isn’t to stop asking God to remove our suffering. Perhaps it’s learning to remain anchored in His goodness while we wait—and discovering that even here, nothing has to be wasted. Our suffering can become prayer. It can become intercession. In the hands of Jesus, it can even become part of the answer.

In this episode, Lisa explores:

• Why Christianity calls us neither to obsess over suffering nor simply grit our teeth and “offer it up”
• What Romans 5 teaches us about the progression from suffering to endurance to character to hope
• Why hope is like an anchor that doesn’t stop the rocking but keeps us from drifting
• What the Catholic teaching on redemptive suffering means in the midst of real pain
• How suffering united to Christ can become a powerful form of prayer and intercession
• What it means to “make this suffering count”
• How spiritual maturity helps us remain faithful when God doesn’t answer our prayers as we expected

Journaling Questions

1. When life starts rocking, where am I most tempted to drift? What does that reveal about where I have been placing my security?
2. If I could “make this suffering count,” what prayer would I most want to unite to it and place before the Father?

Key Scripture
Romans 5:3–5. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Show Mentions
Flourish 2027: Beholding His Beauty, The Transforming Power of Fixing Our Eyes on Christ, A Women’s Conference, Columbus, OH, April 9-11, 2027. Early bird registration discount through September 30, 2026.

Let’s stay connected.
Don’t miss an episode. Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform.