Let your hope keep you joyful!

Share this post​

Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.

Romans 12:12 (NLT Study Bible Text)

The 3 pieces of advice from our good God in this verse are related. By rejoicing in confident hope, we can be patient in trouble. Praying continually is essential if we desire to have this attitude toward the difficulties of life.

God is honored by our hope and trust in Him. He is served not only by us working for Him, but by us sitting still, quietly, as we are in trouble and suffering. Patience for God’s sake is true piety. Those who rejoice in His hope will also be patient in tribulation.

We were given this hope when we were saved. When we already possess something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently. The good news is that the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words (Romans 8:24-26).

Hope: may it be your joy

Trouble and afflictions: may they find you full of endurance

Prayer: pray with perseverance

Each of these exercises helps the other. If our hope of glory is so assured that it is a hope full of joy, we shall find that having the “spirit of endurance in tribulation” comes more naturally and easily. But since it is prayer that strengthens, since faith generates hope and leads to an assured and joyful expectancy, and since our patience in tribulation is fed by this, we can see that it all depends on our “perseverance in prayer.”

Patient endurance is what we need now, so that we will continue to do God’s will. Then we will receive all that He has promised. (Hebrews 10:36)

Let our hope in God be a joy to us, knowing that with perseverance and patience with the help of the Holy Spirit, we will be able to live in fervent prayer to enter our promised land.

Prayer: God, I want to honor you by trusting you with all my heart and rejoicing in my confident hope in you. You will give me the strength to persevere and be patient. Holy Spirit, I ask you to come upon me with a fresh anointing. Help me in my weakness to pray to quicken my faith in God, believing that I will receive all that He has promised.

Quote: If our hope of glory is so assured that it is a hope full of joy, we shall find that having the “spirit of endurance in tribulation” comes more naturally and easily.

Song: All my Hope – Hillsong

Make sure to never miss an article

X