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Joyful, Patient, and Faithful

             Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  (Romans 12:12)

How do you feel when you hope? When you are afflicted? When you pray? Considering all three circumstances, I suspect I don’t feel what I’m supposed to. When I hope something will happen, I tend to become anxious. I feel the need to prepare for what I hope for and worry whether my hope is in vain. When I’m afflicted, I can’t wait to be done with the struggles I face. I tend to think either that they aren’t my fault, or I don’t deserve them. And when I pray, it seems as if my confidence that God will answer disappears. All I tend to see is what a pathetic being I am.

As I consider the command, a bad joke (one of my favorites) comes to mind: “Behave yourself!” The only way to not behave is to be dead, because whether well or badly, you’re still behaving. If being joyful, patient, or faithful came naturally and automatically, there would be no reason to tell us to do so. What sense would there be to telling our hearts to beat? But obedience to these commands is not the reality we experience. These things are not our automatic responses (or at least, not mine), so while “Behave yourself!” is a joke, “Be joyful…patient... faithful” is not. It’s work.

Being joyful isn’t being happy, giddy, or elated. It’s a firm conviction that we are cared for by someone who is capable of caring for us. To be joyful in hope requires that we not worry – not that we not get ready, but that we not fret over our part. Being patient in affliction doesn’t mean being passive, but that we be willing to give God (and others) the time needed to work things out. Being faithful in prayer doesn’t mean just praying every minute, hour, day, or week, but that we trust God to work on the matter.

Which of the three seems hardest to you? It will probably change as you go through your day. I can’t pick either – but if  you are anxious, impatient, or unfaithful/untrusting, take it to God.

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