Joyful, Patient, Faithful

Romans 12:12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

As I read chapter 12 today, this verse stood out to me. I feel like with each part of our journey we go through each of these things, kind of like stages. We may start joyful in the hope at the beginning of the journey. Then, as the obstacles present themselves and time seems to slow to a crawl, we find ourselves needing patience in the affliction. During this time we become prayerful and take our request, concerns, and hopes to God looking for relief from the journey. We may find ourselves back at joyful in hope at some point and so on. I feel like this is a continual cycle for me in all aspects of my life. Depending on the timing and the situation, I am at each one of these points in the cycle in any given circumstance. This cycle works its way through every situation in my life on my journey with Jesus, and this is what a journey with Jesus is all about, walking with him to grow and be transformed.

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Abbie Coffey

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