UNSHAKEABLE: Adopt the 12×12 Rule as your SOP—the standard operating procedure for your Christian life. It comes out of Romans 12:12, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” When you come to a sticky challenge, are overcome by a sense of helplessness, are left scratching your head in bewilderment, or find yourself up against an insurmountable wall, invoke the 12×12 rule. Memorize it—it’s pretty easy; it’s just ten words. Meditate on it until you absorb it into your core. Pray it back to God until the Holy Spirit brings it to life in your way of thinking. And then just do it. Invoke it early and often as you do life.
Unshakeable Living // Romans 12:12
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:9-21 is kind of a checklist for Christ-like behavior. Depending on how you count them, you will find no less than nineteen commands that the Christian is to carry out; practical ways, if you will, that we can truly live as “living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.” (Rom 12:1)
The Message version’s rendering of verse 1 calls us to take our “everyday, ordinary life — our sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.” With God’s help, by rejecting the world’s way of thinking and acting, by the complete transformation of our entire way of viewing, doing, and approaching life, and with our 24/7 dedication to the aforementioned, this checklist pretty well covers what should be the outward produce of that inner renovation we have experienced in Christ.
There is one item on this checklist that is a particular favorite of mine: Romans 12:12. A few years ago, an elder in the church where I served as lead pastor brought that particular verse to my attention. It became the motto of our elder board — and I affectionately named it the 12×12 rule: Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. In our elder’s meetings, when we would come to a sticky challenge, were overcome by a sense of helplessness, left scratching our head in bewilderment, or found ourselves up against an insurmountable wall, we’d just invoke the 12×12 rule.
The 12×12 rule became such a standard response as well as a call to action for my leadership team that one year during the Christmas season the elders gave me a gift that would be a constant reminder to invoke this rule in my life and leadership. It was a beautiful Mont Blanc pen — with the words, “Romans 12:12” inscribed on it. I have never received a more unforgettable and beneficial gift!
The 12×12 rule pretty well sums up what it means to be Christian, doesn’t it? I would like to challenge you to adopt the 12×12 rule as your own. Memorize it—it’s pretty easy; it’s just ten words. Meditate on it until you absorb it into your core. Pray it back to God until the Holy Spirit brings it to life in your way of thinking. And then just do it. Invoke it early and often as you do life.
The 12×12 rule. I like that: Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.
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