Romans 12:9-21

Motto Sunday

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer"

What is this passage, and motto teaching us?

Calling to a transformed life

Paul is calling us to use our lives as an object of worship. This life will be working in the church, and working in society for Christ's glory.

Power and guidance

A transformed life needs power and guidance. The power of the Holy Spirit gives us strength to keep going, and the Word gives us commands and guidance for our life as we seek to serve God. These commands are given to those who know God's grace - otherwise they would not make sense! They are commands of grace, guiding those who have the power of grace in their engines.

Be joyful in hope

The object of our hope is a new creation and the return of the king - of Jesus. This hope is as certain as the sun rising tomorrow. We can have optimism in faith of the risen Jesus, who defeated sin and death. We are not there yet, but we have been told it is coming and so we have can have joy in knowing there is an end to the darkness in this world.

Patience in affliction

Affliction in this context is connected to being a follower of Jesus. If you live a life of faith there is going to be persecution and opposition. A common longing is for the pain to be meaningful - to have a purpose. We have the conviction that there is meaning in this pain. Out of this mess will come something - God has a plan and everything is working towards it.

Faithfulness in prayer

There is nothing more important than prayer. It fuels our joyful hope and patience in affliction. It brings them together in communication with God.

This isn't the first time in Romans that Paul has linked these three together. In chapter 8 Paul uses the metaphor of childbirth to represent the new creation, highlighting hope, patience, and prayer for the future. Reading on he links the three like this: Our hope in the future is brought on by patience in suffering. And prayer gives us joy that our hope is not in vain as we wait. The kingdom to come is worth waiting for, and in our prayers we can have joy for that day, we can call upon the Holy Spirit to give us patience in the suffering of this world. We groan as we hope and prayerful groans connect us to the God of hope.