“Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”

Romans 12:11 describes how we are to serve the Lord.

It goes on to say, you are to serve this way unless you are busy with other responsibilities, or you are approaching retirement age, or if you’ve done a lot in the past, or unless you’ve been hurt by the church.

Actually, no it doesn’t! There is no end date, no off ramp, for those who wear the name of Christ.

But I’ve found myself considering some of those excuses, and let me tell you that last one, “unless you’ve been hurt my the church” seemed pretty excusable to me lately. Church hurt, well, that really hurts and I felt myself pulling away. Until, I asked God to search my heart and help me search His Word.

As I read Romans 12, God, through Paul, says things like rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation…and bless those who persecute you (Rom 12:12-14). There is no excuses, or quit, or stay at home, for those who love the Lord even when they’ve been hurt by the church.

We are to keep on keeping on.

We are to remember where our hope comes from—it’s not from others, or even some strength we can muster on our own, it is the hope of Christ.

One day, every tear will be wiped away. One day our eyes will behold the only Perfect One who has loved our imperfect selves.

Until then, may we rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. (Rom 12:15) and may the pain we’ve encountered, even pain caused by those who also bear the name of Christ, only cause us to love others more and weep with them more genuinely.

May we remember, “His loving kindness is better than life”….it truly is! And because of that, may our lips diligently and continually praise Him! (Psalm 63:3-4).

ReadRomans12

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