Paul wrote to the believers in Rome before he had ever set foot there, to people living under pressure in the capital of an empire that didn’t share their faith. Notice the order he gives: he doesn’t tell them to rejoice after hope is fulfilled. The joy lives inside the hope itself. Earlier in this same letter he puts it plainly: hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what they already have? Rejoicing in hope means celebrating what God has promised before we can see any proof of it.
That’s the middle of the miracle, and it rarely looks like one. Most of us know how to rejoice at the end, when the healing comes, the prodigal walks back through the door, the marriage turns. But every miracle has a middle, and the middle is usually the yuck. It’s the fight you didn’t see coming, the diagnosis, the silence at the dinner table, the season where everything you prayed against seems to be winning. Nobody walking through it calls it a miracle. It just feels like wreckage. Rejoicing in hope is holding on to God’s promise while you’re standing knee-deep in the mess, before you have any idea it’s going somewhere.
This kind of joy isn’t pretending. It’s not a forced smile or denying that things are hard. It’s rooted and grounded in who God is, not in what your circumstances are doing this week. Your feelings will rise and fall. Your hope doesn’t have to, because it isn’t resting on you. It rests on a God who has never once failed to finish what He started.
The Greek word behind “tribulation” carries the idea of pressure: being pressed, squeezed, weighed down. It’s the kind of word you’d use for grapes in a press or olives under a stone. And the word for “patient” doesn’t mean sitting quietly with folded hands. It means to remain under. To stay put while the weight is on you, and not bolt, quit, or run for the gate.
Anyone who has waited on a mare to foal knows this kind of patience. You can’t hurry eleven months. You can check on her, feed her right, pace the barn at midnight, but the timing isn’t yours. What is yours is whether you stay faithful through the waiting. Paul tells this same church in Romans 5 that tribulation produces patience, patience produces experience, and experience produces hope. The pressure isn’t wasted. It’s working something in you that ease never could.
Being patient in tribulation doesn’t mean you won’t cry, question, or get tired. Scripture is full of faithful people who did all three. It means you keep standing in the place God has put you, trusting that the pressure has a purpose and a limit. The press is not the end of the story. It’s where the oil comes from.
“Instant” is one of those words that has changed since 1611. We hear it and think quick, but in the King James sense it meant urgent, earnest, and persistent. The Greek word means to hold fast, to stay devoted, to keep at something without letting go. Paul uses the same word when he tells the Colossians to “continue in prayer”: not to visit it now and then, but to stay put in it.
This is prayer as a way of living, not an emergency button. It’s not just the desperate prayer we pray when the bottom falls out, though God hears those too. It’s the steady, daily, sometimes unremarkable habit of talking to Him before coffee, over the sink, on the drive to town, and in the barn at dark. The women who get through the middle of their miracle are rarely the ones who prayed hardest once. They’re the ones who never stopped.
And notice that this is the third piece, not the first. Hope keeps your head up. It keeps you hanging on, and in some cases, hanging on for dear life. Patience keeps your feet planted during the yuck. Prayer keeps you connected to the One who holds both. Take away any one of them and the other two start to wobble. Together, they’re how a woman lives in the middle of a miracle without losing heart before she reaches the end of it. And here’s the part nobody tells you: you usually don’t know you’re in the middle of a miracle until you look back. From inside it, the middle just looks like the end of things. Hope is what keeps you standing long enough to find out otherwise.
Piety, study and action through friendship, fellowship and community is how we “do” Hope in the Middle of a Miracle™, and I love what the wheat stalks symbolize in relation to it – so much so, that I bought a new bible with two wheat stalks on the cover of it,
Why Wheat?
The two stalks on the cover of my Bible stand for exactly that: a life of faith that was never meant to be grown alone. Wheat is never grown one stalk at a time. It’s sown by the handful, it comes up together, and it’s harvested as a field. Paul told the Corinthians, “ye are God’s husbandry,” meaning His planted, tended field. The two stalks stand for exactly that: a life of faith that was never meant to be grown alone.
Piety is what happens below the surface. Just one verse before our study verse, Paul urges us to present ourselves “a living sacrifice.” Devotion starts underground, long before anything breaks the dirt.
Study is the grain filling out. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God.” What you put in during the quiet seasons is what you’ll have to live on in the hard ones.
Action is the harvest. “Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Faith that stays in your head never feeds anybody.
And none of it grows in isolation. Piety, study and action take root through friendship, fellowship and community, women standing side by side in the same field, leaning on each other through the middle of the miracle. As Paul put it, one plants, another waters, but God gives the increase.
And none of it grows in isolation. Like the two stalks on my bible, piety, study and action are one stalk, and friendship, fellowship and community are the other, each one holding the other up. Women standing side by side in the same field, leaning on each other through the middle of the miracle. In 1 Corinthians 3:6, Paul put it this way: “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
Wheat is never grown one stalk at a time. It’s sown by the handful, comes up together, and is harvested as a field. Paul called us “God’s husbandry,” His planted, tended field. Hope in the Middle of a Miracle is built on three ways faith grows: piety, study, and action. We don’t grow them alone.
Piety is the direction of one's whole life to God, worshipping in spirit and truth, and showing the undeserved grace he offers to all, and extends to the saved, to others, continuously seeking God as he does not force himself on us, while laying everything at his feet - all of the good and all of the yuck for him to work out and us for his glory.
Study is essential for spiritual growth, understanding and discernment, strengthening our faith and nurturing piety. "Study to shew thyself approved unto God." We'll be digging into the Word, not skimming it, starting with Romans 12:12 and working through what it actually means to rejoice in hope, stay patient in tribulation, and remaining in prayer.
"Let us not be weary in well doing." Faith that stays in your head never feeds anybody. Each lesson ends with a way to put it to work, in your home, your marriage, your friendships, and your town. Hope isn't just something we hold on to. It's something we carry to the women who need it next through action that allows the love of Christ to move onward.
Piety, study and action take root through the people God puts beside you. Two stalks, same ground, leaning on each other through the middle of the miracle. Whether we’re gathered around a table or logging in from miles away, this is where hope gets shared, carried, and multiplied. One plants, another waters, but God gives the increase.
"Bear ye one another's burdens." Whether you're across the table or across the country, I believe many of us are walking the same road, or at the very least, a very similar road. Friendship is reaching out from under the rock you've been living under, loving and accepting, and showing up for each other; a phone call, a text, a prayer said when there's no hope to be had.
Christians were meant to live in unity - not in isolation. Fellowship is vital for our witness and our mission. If we cultivate humility, gentleness, patience, love and zeal we will be empowered to walk in a manner worthy of our call and pursue Christian unity results in a peace that binds us together while being able to display the glory of God in an unbelieving world.
Community is where it all comes together and spills over. Women in every season, belonging to something bigger than ourselves, bigger than our bible study, and beyond the church building on Sundays. Community is action within our town, extending an olive branch to the woman with no hope, and knee-deep her yuck. Community is where we lift each other up and not put each other down - we might be the only example of Jesus that someone ever sees.
Hope keeps your head up, patience keeps you in the middle while you’re riding out the yuck, seeking always, staying in intention, and prayer, building your relationship with Jesus.
If you’re not familiar with Paul, he has quite a story –
Before he was Paul, he was Saul, a Pharisee. In Philippians 3:5–6, he describes himself as “an Hebrew of the Hebrews” and, “concerning zeal, persecuting the church.” In Acts 9:1, we meet him “yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.” He wasn’t just against Jesus; he was hunting down the people who followed him.
Long story short Paul – given all of the above – was appointed by Jesus to be an apostle, a preacher and a teacher of the Gentiles, or Christians.
I believe the whole bible is written for us, but not al of it is written to us. For example, a lot of it is written to the Jews, the context of which is very different than that of the Gentiles which is why Paul’s writings to us, the Gentiles, are so very important.
In 2 Timothy 2:15 he tells us to Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Rightly dividing basically means “context” – differentiating the audience, or who’s being spoken to, and the time, or dispensation, an example of which is Old Testament vs New Testament. Another is the dispensation of grace that God revealed through Paul.
💡 I believe right division and learning dispensations are imperative when it comes to understanding the bible so we’ll be taking a lot about this.
1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
> I believe that water baptism is a beautiful public declaration of your salvation, but only are we redeemed, justified and saved through the blood of Jesus.
Then the gospel –
1 Corinthians 15:1–4
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
> The gospel is the good news, y’all. Christ died, was buried and rose again. With this, salvation is freely offered to anyone who will chose it, when we do, we are washed clean by his blood.
Romans 3:22-25
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
Romans 5:1-5
1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Romans 12:12
Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
2 Corinthians 2:13-14
13 All the saints salute you. 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.
Colossians 2:8-10
8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
> I believe that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are 3 parts of one being, which my bible refers to as the Godhead, if you read a different version, you may be more familiar with the Trinity.
Ephesians 1:13
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.I believe everything in the bible is true, but these are a few of my foundational,
> Studying the bible can be difficult, and we’ll be working on that too.
I could keep adding verses here, and if it hasn’t already overwhelmed you, it probably would then so I’ll close this section with this –
I believe the Bible is God’s Word, and in this group, we study it together, we study how to study, we have honest vulnerable discussions, asking questions, discussing varrying thoughts and opinions respectfully.
From whatever version of the Holy Bible you read from and wherever you are in the yuck, whatever tiny glimmer of hope you may see, you may be holding onto or grasping for, or wherever you are in the middle of your miracle – there’s a seat for you here, with your Sisters in Christ.