Romans 12:12 “ Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” This episode is about the three commands God gives us in this verse. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Three Commands
Romans 12:12 “ Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”
Wow, this is a relatively short verse and yet it gives us three difficult commands in that short amount of time. The first is rejoice in hope. You may not think this sounds difficult. Rejoicing is fun and who doesn’t like to celebrate right? The verse says to rejoice in hope. What is hope? Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Another definition was a feeling of trust. We are not rejoicing because we got what we wanted, we are rejoicing because we expect to get what we desire. We are rejoicing because it is possible that we will get what we desire. Hope and trust are really difficult for a lot people.
It is easy to hope for things that you don’t have a strong personal attachment to. I feel like I could rejoice in hope that my nephew wins his football game. I believe that is likely to happen and if it doesn’t, I was not personally invested as much as he was. But what about when the stakes are higher. What if what I am hoping for something that means a lot to me? What if I am hoping that I get a job that I have been rejected from three times already? What if I am hoping for a healthy pregnancy when I have already had two that were not? Do you see how hope can be tricky? In order to hope for something you have to be vulnerable. You have to place your trust in something other than yourself. This is hard for many people. If you are having trouble hoping for something you really want I hope you know that you are not alone.
It seems as though we talk about hope like it is an easy thing to do. We use the word in very different way and seem to assign it the same weight. We say, “I hope you enjoy the birthday party” and we also say, “I hope you get the job.” We say those two things in the same way, but they mean very different things. Whether you have fun at a party or not is completely in your control. Whether you get the job or not is not completely in your control. Also, you are probably more emotionally invested in finding a job than having fun at a party. I know several people that have deep desires and they have been waiting for them to be fulfilled for a very long time. I get why it is not easy for them to rejoice in hope. They can’t rejoice in hope because it hurts too much for them to hope. They have hoped for years and they can’t see how they are going to attain their desires. They feel like they have been strong and have hoped and now they feel as though it is too painful to hope. If this is you I urge you to confide in someone that you trust. Tell that person your desires and ask them to hope for you. Don’t give up on your desires, maybe just ask someone else to hope for you until you are ready to hope again.
The next command says to be patient in tribulation. Seriously, could anything be more difficult. We live in a fast pace world. We are all doing a million things at one time and we have very little down time for our brains to rest. We live in an age where we can order something on the computer and have it delivered to your door that day. You no longer have to wait in long lines at the grocery store, you can order online and have it delivered to your house. We are becoming a people who expect things to happen now, in an instant. If we order something and it takes more that two days to get here, we are annoyed. Imagine back when things had to be put on a boat and shipped here from England?
I can feel our ability, as a society, to be patient slipping away. If we are losing our ability to be patient with the small things, how is it possible that God is asking us to be patient in tribulation. Tribulation is a cause of great trouble or suffering. So, when we are suffering the most, God wants us to be patient. That’s not easy. It’s also not something we usually think about in the moment. When we are in tribulation, we usually just respond. We don’t take time to think about how we should respond. Although, maybe that is God’s point. If we were patient, slowed down and thought about our situation, maybe we would make better choices? Also, if we worked on being patient when we weren’t in trying times, then maybe it would come more easily to us when we are.
The next command is to be in constant prayer. Now, this is something I have researched as I question how we can be in constant prayer. We need to sleep, we need eat, we need to take care of ourselves and our loved ones. Not to mention find some time in between all of that to go to work so that we can afford to take care of ourselves and our loved ones. What I found in my research is not that you need to never stop praying, but more towards, having a heart for prayer. I read one article that described it more like a radio playing in the background of your mind. You do not need to be praying out loud every moment of your life. However, you could start to incorporate more prayer into your everyday tasks. I just read something the other day, I am not sure where I saw it, about how great it was to say the Liturgy of the Hours. The Liturgy of the Hours forms the official set of prayers "marking the hours of each day and sanctifying the day with prayer." Priests and consecrated religious men and women are required to say these throughout the day. However, even if you are not a consecrated you can say these prayers. They will only strengthen your spiritual life.
A great way to incorporate prayer into your already busy schedule is to pick a task and devote that time to prayer. For instance you could pray for a different person with each piece of laundry you fold, or each dish you wash. You could say a prayer while you were vacuuming or dusting. Another great thing to do is to dedicate each task to someone or some cause. For instance before you start washing the car you dedicate that time for the needs of your mom. Before you begin making dinner you dedicate that time for the needs of the homeless. I know that we are all busy. I am not suggesting that you add three hours of kneeling down prayer into your schedule. What I am suggesting is that you add prayer into the tasks that you are already doing. Matthew Kelly talked about praying without ceasing in at least one of his books. He said when he was younger his mentor told him to write the initials of someone on each page of the books that he had to study for school. Then pause for a moment before each page and say a quick prayer for that person. He had to study anyway, this just turned that studying into prayer time as well. There are many ways you can incorporate prayer into your current lifestyle. I wrote a blog entitled Pray Without Ceasing about a year ago. I will put a link for that blog in the show notes so if you are interested in learning more ways to pray without ceasing, you can check it out.
Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord help us to follow these three commands that you gave us in this verse today. They are not easy commands and we can’t do them on our own. However, we know we can do all things with you. Help us to be brave and vulnerable and rejoice in the hope even when it’s hard, even when we are afraid. Help us to be patient in the tribulations Lord. Help us to learn how to be in constant prayer Lord Jesus. We thank you for all that you have done for us. You are truly amazing! We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.