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Welcome back to the Ministry Corner.
Romans 12:12 Rejoicing in hope; persevering under pressure; continually in prayer; [GBMV]
This one verse stood out to me as I was reading today, and you know there’s a lot in there you can unpack in that simple little verse, but really it comes down to one simple thing, and that is words and actions.
Words and actions will produce hope in you and give you hope for the future. How? Let’s have a look at it.
How to Get Hope
One, rejoicing in hope.
What is rejoicing? This is being joyful. It’s being positive and expecting something positive. It’s being joyful, filled with joy.
It’s greeting hope and expecting it to come. And you know the word for rejoicing there is a present active tense. So that means you make a choice.
It’s a choice that you make right now at this moment. So you need to choose to rejoice. If you want hope, you have to choose to rejoice.
You have to choose to praise the Lord, speak positive words, and expect positive things to happen. And that’s easier said than done, isn’t it? When you start out, you might be filled with joy.
Perseverance
So that’s where we come to the second part, persevering under pressure.
You see, when you decide to make a choice to step out in joy, and you decide to expect positive things, the pressure is going to come on you. The pressure is going to come, and that joy is going to fade, and that hope is going to fade. And in its place, fear is going to come.
You see, fear is the enemy of hope. When you have fear, you stop moving. You have to keep moving.
You have to persevere. You must not give up hope. You must keep going.
You know, no one ever tells you to persevere when things are good, do they? They always tell you to persevere when things suck. But that is the key to maintaining hope, is to persevere whether things are good or bad, to keep going forward, to keep pushing forward and taking action that you don’t feel like doing. The scripture says that endurance produces experience, and experience produces hope.
So you need to keep going in order to produce hope. You need to keep persevering. But how do you maintain, how do you persevere when you don’t feel like it?
The Power of Prayer
That’s where we come to part three, being continually in prayer.
You need to be continually hearing the Lord’s voice. Because you see, hope is based on pictures. It’s based on the pictures of your mind.
And there are only two ways that you can build positive pictures in your mind. It’s through the words that you speak and your thoughts. And the words that you speak are the most powerful.
But you know what’s even more powerful is when you hear the words of the Lord, when you hear His voice speaking to you. You see, because the scripture says,
Romans 10:17 So then faith comes as a result of hearing, and hearing by means of the spoken [rhema] word of God. [GBMV]
So you need to hear His positive words speaking to you.
When you hear those words, it’ll build hope in your heart. It’ll build faith in the Lord and in His words. And you’ll start to see positive things.
You’ll start to expect the positive. Joy will begin to rise up in you, no matter your circumstances. If you’re experiencing a hard time today, I want to encourage you to persevere.
Words and Action
You must speak words, and you must take action. Do not stop moving, because if you stop moving and you give in to fear, then you will lose. And you will not achieve what God has for you.
And you will not break out of it, because it’s in your hands. It’s in your hands to take action. It’s in your hands to speak the words, and spend time in prayer with the Lord, and hear His words.
And you will start to see hope. Do not give up hope. The Lord has hope for you today.
The Lord has a bright future for you today, no matter what you are facing. And even if it’s hard, you must persevere until you experience that joy and that hope that He has for you. Don’t give up hope today.
The Lord has great things in store for you. I hope this was a blessing to you, just as it was for me. Go out and persevere now, and begin to experience the joy of the Lord.
Rejoice in Him, and you will see His blessing in your life, in everything that you do.
Blessings
John P. Crause
Servant of Jesus
GBM International