Monday, May 18, 2020

Joyful, Patient, Faithful

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Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:12 (NIV)
  
                Be joyful-
             Joyful means what it says-full of joy. Some would say that to be joyful means just that and nothing more. When we believe in Christ, we invite Him into our hearts, we give Him all our grievances and our sadness.

            In hope-
             In the New Testament, hope means the expectation of good. Presently, the world needs to have hope to survive the Coronavirus pandemic. Our hope is in Christ. He will guide us through this time of restrictions.

            patient-
            Patience is a gift of the Holy Spirit, the Old Testament uses the phrase, long-suffering to describe it. I love that meaning. Waiting is part of patience.

            in affliction-
            We will have difficulties come to us as we walk this earth. No one is immune from them. Jesus told His disciples,” In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:22)

            faithful-
            The writer of Hebrews tells us that faith is “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1) When we have hope we have to also have confidence. We must rely on God to get us through those tough times that we all will face at some time in our lives.
           
            in prayer-
            Prayer is the way we converse with God. Through this avenue, we thank Him for what He has done for us. We tell Him we love Him. We bring our requests and our intercessions for others before Him.

Added Thought:

As I searched for a graphic to put here. the thought came to me that the qualities mentioned in this verse are all listed in the Fruit of the Spirit  that Paul writes of to the Galatians.


4 comments:

  1. What a perfect verse for our current situation! Wow! And the "graphic" also goes along with it exactly right. I'm afraid I am not being as patient as I should be during this time. I really want to get back to "normal", especially back to church. But I realize that may not be what is best for everyone, so I must be patient and wait on God. I need to pray a lot more about this. Thank you for this reminder.

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    Replies
    1. Pam: Thank you for you kind comments. I always had a problem with patience because it required waiting. One day I was reading the Fruit of the Spirit passage in the King James, I noticed the word for patience was the phrase "long-suffering." It made me pause and ponder. It has also helped me to learn to live in the moment. Peace and blessings to you and yours.

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  2. Excellent Cecelia, I see another post coming :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Marja. I hope to get back on schedule very soon. Peace and blessings to you and yours.

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