Rejoicing, Hoping, Praying

Romans 12:12 “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”

This verse kind of summarizes my weekend. God has been hitting home with some big lessons for me this week. I wanted to share about them.

Rejoice- For my personal devotions, I have been reading through Revelation. I read chapter 4 most recently and was reminded of God’s holiness and the fact that he is worthy to be praised. Revelation makes it pretty clear that God is worthy to be praised just for being God. But Revelation also lists other reasons why we should praise God. We should praise God because he is powerful [Revelation 4:5]. We should praise God because he is outside of time (was, and is, and is to come) [Revelation 4:8]. And we should praise God because he created all things [Revelation 4:11]. Above all else, in spite of anything else, we must remember that God is worthy of our praise and so we have reason to rejoice in him.

Hope- God taught me a lesson on hope this weekend too. I arrived at church on Sunday morning to hear that one of the members of our church that has used a walker for as long as we’ve been there, was hospitalized with a heart attack and loss of oxygen and is on life support. It is what seems like a hopeless situation. If he recovers, he goes back to life with a walker and other health issues. But if he doesn’t recover, he dies. To the world, that is a hopeless situation. But to the believer, there is hope on both ends because of Christ. No matter what, we know that God is his provider. We know that even if Bob never finds healing on earth, there is eternal healing waiting for him in Heaven. I can never understand how people can through life without Christ, because without him there is no hope. This verse reminds us to rejoice in that hope that we have which will help us to be patient in tribulation.

Prayer- Lastly, God taught me about prayer this week. Patrick and I went to see “The War Room” on Friday night and I thought it was one of the better Christian movies that have come out recently. It was an excellent reminder of the power of God that is accessible to us through prayer. I was convicted to spend more time praying over things and less time trying to fight battles on my own. This verse instructs us to be constant in prayer- definitely easier said than done. My prayer life isn’t so hot but this verse adds to the importance of heating it up. How much effort we put into fighting battles on our own when we have a God that wants to help us! That is all the more reminder to be constant in prayer.

Rejoice in God because he is worthy of praise. Hold fast in hope in Christ. And  spend time in constant prayer to the one who is worthy of all power, glory, and honor.