| Our verse to DATE the Word on December 12 (12/12) is Romans 12:12 |
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| Romans 12:12 says, “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;” |
| Three KEYS to the SUCCESSFUL CHRISTIAN LIFE As the Apostle Paul pens the letter to the Romans, he has moved from doctrinal teaching to practical teaching for living out the Christian life. As one lives a transformed life one now sees life differently and approaches life differently. The Christian’s view of others is to demonstrate genuine love to them (v9) and honor others better than themselves. (v.10) They move from living for themselves seeking to fulfill selfish desires to now seeking to serve the Lord and serving Him with intense enthusiasm. (v11) To help one serve the Lord, the Apostle Paul now gives three actions to take. He first calls on believers to have a joyful attitude as one always has hope when one is serving the Lord as the Lord is always with them! (A great promise from the Lord is He will never leave us nor forsake us.) There is the hope that His Word never returns void! There is the hope that as we share Christ there will be a breakthrough. And ultimately, we rejoice in hope because our salvation concludes (and really starts) in heaven so the best is yet to come! What a HOPE we have in Jesus! Now, being very realistic Paul tells the believer secondly they will need to be patient in tribulation or to endure, to persevere with tribulations. Jesus told his disciples that in this world they will have tribulation but be of good cheer, He had overcome the world. John 16:33. I trust no one told you that becoming a Christian means you will have no more problems and no more trouble. If they did you were told something that just is not true. Getting saved does not mean we do not have any more trials and troubles and tribulations. It does mean though that we have someone to help us get through the tribulation, helping us to ENDURE. I truly believe one of the great marks of the Christian is endurance or perseverance. We don’t QUIT. We REMAIN UNDER the pressure. To help the believer be patient, to endure the Apostle Paul teaches us to CONTINUE STEADFASTLY IN PRAYER. One will only persevere in life by handling life with continuous prayer!! This, friends, cannot be just a quick morning prayer. It needs to be persevering, continual prayer. The harder life gets the harder (if you will) one must pray!! The idea of “continue steadfastly” is that of continuing to do something with intense effort. The harder life gets the harder (if you will) one must pray!! So we have three more actions of the transformed life. There is the JOYFUL attitude. Never QUITTING and always praying! Are these actions that describe your life? The verse to DATE the Word on December 12 (12/12) is Romans 12:12. It says, “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;” “In hope, rejoicing; in tribulation, enduring; in prayer, persevering.” Continue Strong rejoicing, enduring, and praying! And remember to DATE THE WORD |