Romans 12:12

rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;

Personal Challenge

If we are supposed to go through life loving our God and our neighbor, putting their needs and desires above ours, how do we do that? If we are to put up with the persecutions that the world will levy against us, how do we do that? Paul gives us some guidelines here. We rejoice in hope, the hope that is in our Lord Jesus Christ and the faith that we are in His hands eternally. Through that hope we can be patient in the tribulation that comes our way knowing that in the end we will be glorified in our Lord. And in the process of doing this we continue stead­fastly in prayer to our Lord and King. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Romans 12:9

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.

Personal Challenge

Paul makes it clear that we are to hate the evil things of this world and to cling to the things that are good. Many have gotten good at the first piece of this but also taken it to the extreme that their hatred of the evil things has carried over to the hatred of the person doing the evil things. We must remember that he starts this admonition off by telling us to love without hypocrisy. He is basing this on Jesus telling us to love God and to love our neighbor above all else, we are to hate the evil, but still love the person who has been created in the image of God that we might win them over to that which is good, the love of God. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Romans 12:4-5

For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

Personal Challenge

It is often difficult for us to remember that God’s Church is comprised of many parts, many people, that make up one unified body. All these parts are needed in order to complete the work that God has called the Church to do. When we get to the place where we exclude, even denigrate, other Christian faith practices because they are different than us, then we have become enemies of the Church. We should always be on the guard for erroneous teaching and heresies, but be loving and supportive of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Glory be to God!

Romans 12:1-2

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Personal Challenge

I have spent most of my life, living in an age where it was safe to live our Christian life without any fear or concern about persecution. Christianity has been tolerated by most. However, we are entering into a time where the concept of being a Christian has been mainstreamed in our society and bastardized to be conforming to the world rather than set apart for God. In the name of Christianity, people are storming our capital and school board meetings threatening people’s lives for their definitions of godliness. We are seeing resistance in our churches for choosing to follow and be submissive to our hierarchical leaders in the cause of exercising our “rights” to do what we want. The day may be coming soon, if it is not already here, where people proclaiming to be Christians will be persecuting other Christians who are choosing to adhere to the 2,000 year old teachings of our Lord. This will be a time where we will truly be living sacrifices for our God! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Romans 11:33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!

“For who has known the mind of the LORD?
Or who has become His counselor?”
“Or who has first given to Him
And it shall be repaid to him?”

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.

Encouraging Words

It has always been encouraging to be able to submit to another who knows so much more about something than I do. Whether it be in work or in volunteering, when the leader is knowledgeable in the space that we are working in, it is easy to let them lead. This is the way it should be in our lives and our relationship with God. He has so much more knowledge and wisdom than all of creation added together let alone me, He has no need for a counselor. He knows all and is in all. No one or nothing can ever know His mind. Knowing and believing this makes it so much easier to yield to Him and let Him lead my life. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Romans 10:14-15

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:

“How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!”

Personal Challenge

We are challenged here by Paul, to be preachers, emissaries, of the gospel of Christ. We do not get welcomed into the family of God just to go sit in the comfortable corner of the Kingdom of God and let everyone else do His work. We are called to share His life giving gospel with everyone that we meet. We share this gospel by our actions as well as our words. By doing this we are bringing glad tidings of good things to the world around us. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Romans 10:8-13

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”

Personal challenge

God loves us. Jesus died for us. These are irrefutable truths. If we truly believe this, with our whole heart, soul, spirit, mind, and body, and are willing confess this belief every moment of our lives, then we are partakers in Gods’ love. This profession of our faith is not a once in a lifetime event. It is a never ending, day after day, moment by moment willingness to proclaim that Jesus is our Lord and our choice to follow and obey Him. By doing this our lives are changed from a worldly focus to a heavenly focus. By living this way we will never be put to shame. Glory be to God!

Romans 8:35-39

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Encouraging Words

This passage is full of so many wonderfully encouraging words about the relationship that we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in this temporal, physical realm can separate us from the love of Christ. If I choose to continue to pursue sin in my life, if I desire to live in the ways of the world around me, even if I choose to deny Him, He still loves me and died for me. If I choose to accept this love from Him and try to walk in His footsteps then I will be a conquerer of everything that comes my way knowing that nothing can ever come between God and His love for me. This love is eternal. This love is complete. This love if from Him. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Romans 8:31-32

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Encouraging Words

Because of who Jesus was, fully God and fully man, and the work that He did of going to the cross as an innocent man, God is for us, His creation. God has always loved us, but when Adam and Eve sinned a chasm between us and God was established and death set in to reign over us. Jesus broke the bondage that death had on us and bridged that chasm so that we can once again be in intimate fellowship with our Father. Glory be to God!