Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Romans 12:12
So I often talk about hard times, and if you’ve been following my blog maybe you’re tired of hearing it… I don’t blame you listening to negative after negative can be draining, but the reason why I talk about hard times is because I know that many of us secretly struggle. On Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat we can easily show our good times, food we’re eating, cute selfies of ourselves, families and friends, vacations we’re taking, etc. And of course I’m going to share the positive in my life, and no I’m going to show you times where I’ve cried myself to sleep or when I’m struggling with things in my personal life. Nobody wants to see that and I don’t want to share that. I will share however, on how we can overcome these things that “nobody wants to see.” For me it’s simple, putting God in our lives first and foremost is the way of overcoming a lot of our struggles, but how do we do that? According to Romans 12:12, Paul breaks it down to rejoice in hope, being patient, and praying. Hope is such a simple thing, yet it can be very difficult to have when you’re going through something hard in your life. When Paul says to “rejoice in hope” I picture myself grasping on to any hope and allowing it to change my perspective on whatever situation I may be facing. Imagine just seeing all the negative things in your life, literally make a mental note (most of us do it subconsciously anyways!), then saying “I’m going to just have hope that everything is going to be okay…” Doesn’t that feel like a relief? It is easier said than done, and maybe it’s not the fastest relief, but just that little relief actually goes a long way when you focus on God and having hope that’s He working it all out. Paul also tells us to be patient in tribulation… patient during that hard night when you’re struggling with suicidal thoughts, patient when you’re afraid of where you’re going to be a year from now because you have no vision or direction, patient for the son who is caught up in addiction and you’ve been praying over the past 2 years, patient. Yeah no one likes to be patient, but there is strength that comes from it. Then the most important thing which is the main focus of this post…prayer. Pray. If I could go back to all the times God has answered my prayers you would see why I do believe that He’s real. Prayer is the most simple and effective weapon that we have against our trials. We can trust we’re going to get through it and it’s going to work out the best way it needs to through prayer. Pray even when you don’t feel like it. Pray for those who don’t pray at all. Pray for your family. Pray for yourself. Pray so that you can grow in your relationship with God. Pray over every situation and become a witness of God’s goodness in your life. So when you’ve been going through these ups and downs and everything feels like it’s falling apart, or taking a while, or just stagnant… pray. So if you already have a strong prayer life, keep going and if you don’t, I challenge you to start with something small so it’s not overwhelming and then go from there. Also remember that we’re called to be patient while waiting for prayers to be answered in which ever way they’re suppose to be, and to rejoice in hope. For the record, I don’t believe that every prayer is answered the way we want and some may never be answered in our life times, but still having that prayer life in your life is something you will never regret.
The song that I posted to go with this post is by Maverick City music and the lyrics are very powerful. So go check it out 🙂
Have a blessed week 🙂
Also if you have any prayer requests that you’d like to pray for please feel free to email me the information is on my about me page or send me a DM on my instagram page: @pandamaria_
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Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life 