ROMAS 12 VERSES 12-21 COMMETARY EDITED BY GLE PEASE 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Barclay, “We are to rejoice in hope. When Alexander the Great was setting out upon one of his eastern campaigns, he was distributing all kinds of gifts to his friends. In his generosity he had given away nearly all his possessions. "Sir," said one of his friends, "you will have nothing left for yourself." "Oh, yes, I have," said Alexander, "I have still my hopes." The Christian must be essentially an optimist. Just because God is God, the Christian is always certain that "the best is yet to be." Just because he knows of the grace that is sufficient for all things and the strength that is made perfect in weakness, the Christian knows that no task is too much for him. "There are no hopeless situations in life; there are only men who have grown hopeless about them." There can never be any such thing as a hopeless Christian. Barclay, “We are to meet tribulation with triumphant fortitude. Someone once said to a gallant sufferer: "Suffering colours all life, doesn't it?" "Yes," said the gallant one, "it does, but I propose to choose the colour." When the dreadful affliction of complete deafness began to descend on Beethoven and life seemed to be one unbroken disaster, he said: "I will take life by the throat." As William Cowper had it: "Set free from present sorrow, We cheerfully can say. `Even let the unknown tomorrow Bring with it what it may, It can bring with it nothing But he will bear us through.'" When ebuchadnezzar cast Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego into the burning fiery furnace he was amazed that they took no harm. He asked if three men had not been cast into the flames. They told him it was so. He said, "But I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods" (Dn.3:24-25). A man can meet anything when he meets it with Christ. Barclay, “We are to persevere in prayer. Is it not the case that there are times in life when we let day add itself to day and week to week, and we never speak to God? When a man ceases to pray, he despoils himself of the strength of Almighty God. o man should be surprised when life collapses if he insists on living it alone. BARNES, “Rejoicing in hope - That is, in the hope of eternal life and glory which the gospel produces; see the notes at Rom_5:2-3 .