Rejoice, Be Patient, Be Constant

When writing to the church in Rome, Paul tells them to rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and constant in prayer.

Romans12:12 in The Message paraphrase reads like this: “Don’t burn out, keep yourselves fueled and aflame…cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder.”

Let’s be honest. There are days when this is easier than other days. When everything is going according to our plans, it’s easy to rejoice in hope. But there are other days when we have to work harder to be patient in tribulation. These are the days when we must keep ourselves “fueled and aflame.”

How do we do that? Paul tells us to be constant in prayer! And this is where it gets harder. Things may not be going the way we hoped they would go. Maybe we have prayed and not yet seen the answers to our prayers and we are tempted to give up. It’s in those times that we need to persevere in prayer! Don’t quit! Pray harder! Keep believing!

This is what we can be confident of: the God we serve not only hears us when we pray, but He answers our prayers! So, keep rejoicing, keep being patient, and keep praying!