The Daily Word

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The next exhortation that we find in Romans 12 will take strength and grace from God to achieve. My mother used to say, “Patience is a virtue. Find it if you can. Seldom in a woman. Never in a man!”. I quote that because the next exhortation says this “Be Patient in affliction”.

Affliction can come from many sources and of many types, but I don’t think Paul was at this point thinking about a cut finger. Affliction in this case I firmly believe is a type of persecution because of our faith and belief in Jesus Christ. Jesus warned, or promised, His Disciples that they could expect the same level of persecution or affliction that He suffered and indeed all of the Disciples except John suffered martyr’s deaths.

We carry forward the torch of discipleship from them and, in a perverse way, if we are not being persecuted or mocked (afflicted) because of our faith, we could ask whether we are really standing up and witnessing for our Lord and Saviour. But Paul tells us to be patient and that certainly involves NO retaliation. We must bear it as much as possible, silently, but definitely not without silent prayer to God for that patience and for His grace to endure.

In some ways, it complements yesterday’s message and as Paul says elsewhere, he rejoiced that he was counted worthy to suffer for the Gospel’s sake. Paul was certainly a much braver Christian than me but, if and when, affliction comes, we can take heart that this lasts for ‘a moment’ but we have an eternity of joy to look forward to.

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church 

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