Hope Confirmed

"Desperate times call for desperate measures" is an ancient sayings which prescribes almost anything to treat an ailment if there is enough desperation and enough of a ray of hope that the treatment might work. The situation of "tribulation" is just the season of desperation tailor made for a spiritually desperate measure: exulting in tribulations. For Paul, such a means is not an exercise in madness as it is rooted in the promise that God will supply sanctifying grace and use exultation to confirm the disciple in hope.