DEVOTION
ROMANS
BE
Rom 12:12-13
2 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
NIV
It sounds funny to think of this small yet very large word ‘be’. It carries so much implication of action. Be joyful, this is not a suggestion of putting forth some effort in the direction of having a joyful heart. No, this simply says “Be”. Do it, don’t delay, don’t work on it, don’t wait for it to develop in me, and don’t just think the Holy Spirit is going to gift me with it, but it simply says “Be”. So I must be joyful in my hope. Hope of what, I ask? The return of Christ I would believe. The great hope of all believers, Jesus will return to take us home. He has prepared a place for me, and I will be joyful in this hope. Now this of course means I must have this end as my desire, my goal, and my reason for what I do. If I am so enamored by the things of this world, I may not be so joyful to leave those things behind. I may strive to live every day for my own pleasure and not His. One of the great lines in the TV series West Wing, was “I serve at the pleasure of the President” and here I must say, “I serve at the pleasure of my Lord”. My hope is in His return, and to hear those words,
“Well done good and faithful servant”.
I must also be patient in my affliction, but what affliction do I have? The affliction of being mortal, the affliction of sin, and the affliction of being in the human condition may well be some of those things. But could this mean in an illness? No, the Greek word really means pressure. To be patient in times of trouble, or the pressure of living here in the condition of human kind could be implied. Life does bring its trouble. Sometimes it deals some more than others, but I cannot say my life has been filled with that kind of affliction. No, I must see my affliction as my sin, my mortality, my condition of imperfection, of unrighteousness within myself. However, I am to be patient in this condition because a day is coming when this mortality will put on immortality, this unrighteousness will put on righteousness, and this sin will be no more. Praise God!
And I must “Be” faithful in prayer, enough said, except prayer, I think, has always been thought of as asking or talking to God, and I truly believe it has more to do with listening to God. Thus I must be faithful to listen.