Hope, Patience, and Prayer

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

Hope

Now I am not going to look up a bunch of words today, so I am going to just share my understanding here on this word “hope,” for this is me having my quiet time with the Lord and letting him speak to my heart, and me sharing what I got out of the passage of Scripture. 

My understanding about this word “hope” is that it can be taken two different ways. The first one has to do with wishful thinking, like “I hope it will not rain.” “I hope the sun will shine today.” And “I hope my car will not break down on the highway,” etc. This is not something we can be assured of. This is just something we would like to have happen, but we have no guarantee that it will.

But biblical hope is an assurance that something promised is going to indeed happen. But let me add a word of caution here. Where God makes promises he also makes requirements, stipulations, and conditions for those promises to apply to us, first and foremost, and for them to be fulfilled in our lives. So, not everyone who is convinced he is going to heaven when he dies is truly headed to heaven and not to hell. 

So, what kind of conditions am I talking about? Well, for example, a whole lot of people are professing faith in Jesus Christ and are claiming John 10:28-30 as their guarantee and their promise from God. But we have to read that in its context, for if you include verse 27, this is how it reads:

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.”

So, who does this promise apply to, and what are the conditions? Well, it applies to the Lord’s sheep, but to his sheep who are listening to him, who are giving heed to what he says, and who are following him in obedience, and who are walking in his ways and in his truth. These are the ones God knows. He does not know those who call themselves his sheep, and him their Lord, but who do not follow him in obedience (Matthew 7:21-23).

And these are the sheep that have eternal life guaranteed them, and they will never perish, and no one will be able to snatch them out of our Lord’s hands because they are walking with the Lord in daily communion with him, paying attention to his words, and they are doing what he says to do, and they are not doing what they ought not to do, not in practice. Yet this isn’t saying they are perfect people, but sin is not their practice, and godliness, righteousness, and walks of obedience to their Lord are their practice.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

So, if you want to have the true hope of salvation from sin and heaven as your eternal destiny guaranteed you, you must no longer live in sin according to the flesh, but you must now live according to God and to his word, in the power and wisdom of God, by the grace of God. For what does God’s grace train us to do? It trains us to say “No!” to ungodliness and fleshly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s return (see Titus 2:11-14).

Patience

Now we are to be patient in tribulation, and “tribulation” is not just some futuristic period of time in history. It is something we all experience regularly or irregularly. For we all go through trials. We have good days and bad days, days when things go well, and days when they don’t go so well. And we get sick sometimes, or we get hurt, etc. And if our lives are committed to Christ and to serving him with our lives, we are going to face even more trials and tribulations. For we will be hated and persecuted by others who oppose us and our walks of faith in Jesus Christ. But we are blessed!

And to be patient means we don’t get all anxious and begin to worry and to doubt God and to feel like we need to take matters into our own hands. Yes, there are things we need to do, and we should do them, so patience does not equal just sitting back and letting life happen to you and do nothing. But it means we trust God with our circumstances, we believe in his sovereignty over our lives, we know he is allowing these things in our lives for his purposes, and so we choose to rest in him and let him lead us all the way.

Prayer

Prayer, I believe, is communication with God, and it is two-way, not one-way communication. It is not about us just rattling off a list of requests, done deal. It is a conversation with our Lord just like we would have a conversation with anyone else, except that we are talking with God. And we don’t do all the talking, but we do a lot of listening, too. And this is not something that is scheduled between this time and that time each day, either. But it is continuous.

For this should be open communication between us and our Lord to where we can hear him speak to our hearts, and to where we can speak to him, any time of day or night, or even while we are driving a car or washing dishes or vacuuming floors or doing laundry or whatever. And that way we are being constant in prayer, not meaning that we are voicing prayer requests 24/7, but that we are having that open door of communication with our Lord all the time. 

Hope, Patience, and Prayer

Video Talk

June 19, 2023

https://youtu.be/GTddxFqJCGM 

Caution: This link may contain ads

You Loved Me

An Original Work / December 3, 2019

A song based off the poem by the same name

When I was lonely and afflicted,

You were there to pick me up.

You took me in Your arms,

And You held me tenderly.

Your love embraced me.

Your grace sustained me.

When my heart cried out to You

In my fear and my despair,

You never turned away,

But You let me know You loved me.

Your grace forgave me.

You did not shame me.

Then, when I answered the call,

“Here, Lord, send me.”

You sent me to where I must be.

Your mercy held me, did not fail me.

All this, You had planned, to use me.

And, when all trials and scorn

Came to test me.

You gave me all that I would need.

You strengthened me so I’d not fail You.

Your kindness blessed me, it touched me.

And, when I needed the church 

To lift up me,

To hearten me so I’d not fail,

You blessed me with folks who would love me.

Their presence with me, Your praise hailed!

And, when I walked through the valley

Of the shadow of the death,

And tears flowed from my eyes,

Still Your kindness was there for me.

Your touch, it healed me.

For I believed You.

When now I think about the ways,

Of the many, many ways

That You in Your great love

Show me that You’ll always care for me,

My heart, it thanks You,

And gladness fills me, fills me.

https://vimeo.com/377807796