Rejoicing, Patience, And Prayer: Step-By-Step Directions For Your Journey

"Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." Romans 12:12

 I want you to really take time, before we say anything, to look at the verse above. Look at it, study it, and read it. I truly love this quote because I feel like it really describes the journey that God has us each on. Now that you have read and looked at that quote, can you see the steps that it lists? Can you see the directions, the step-by-step points that it leads us to? It really takes us through the whole journey, the hope of it all, the excitement, and the joy. The tribulations, the troubles, problems, and obstacles that we face. And the prayer, the prayers that we send to God and the answers that we want to receive. Let's go  through this set of directions that God has set for us...
 "Rejoice in hope." Sounds pretty simple, right? Just be happy when exciting things happen. Well, that is not all of it. Yes, hope is when you are excited and great things are happening, but hope is also when things aren't happening, but yet, you still have hope they will. Hope is in the troubled times too, so how do we rejoice in that? Well, we take that hope, we hold on to it in the midst of whatever it is that we have going on, and we rejoice in that hope that we have!
 "Be patient in tribulation." I really love this part, because it is basically telling us that we will face tribulations, we will face troubles and hardships, but you have to be patient. You have to trust that God has a reason for everything and that everything is in His time, not ours. So we have to be patient with God.
 "Be constant in prayer." Constant. The definition of that word is "Occurring continuously," and this is telling us that, through all that we go through, the joyful times and the hard times all together. We need to pray. We need it. That's it. We need to have that communication line open with God because when we do, we will get to know Him and who He is, and we will begin to know that He will bring us out of whatever it is that we are in and He will make it right. But we also have to trust in God's answer. Sometimes he may say yes, and sometimes He may say no, but know this, the only person He is thinking about when He answers your prayer, is you, and He wants what is best for you.
 So today, remember these three steps. Apply them to your life, and keep going on your journey.