by Dorette Saunders
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13, NIV).
What a powerful blessing!
How does one explain hope? Hope is not a litany of “I wish I had…” which, once the desire is fulfilled, we begin to immediately crave something else. This hope which the apostle Paul speaks of is a building block of our faith. This hope tells us we can believe what God says is true, and that what God says will happen, will come to pass.
Hope is the byproduct of peace and joy that comes from God, through the Holy Spirit. Because of our faith in Jesus we have hope. Hope assures us that whatever happens in this life is not the end. If we have acknowledged Jesus as our Lord, we can be assured that the troubles we now face are nothing compared to the glory that we will experience later on (2 Corinthians 4:17).
This hope is our covenant with God, that one day Jesus will return to take us with him to heaven, to spend eternity there. Because we will “overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13, NIV), it is little wonder that we now look forward to the Second Advent…the Second Coming, when we will see our Lord as he truly is (1 John 3:2).
How about those transitory things? Do we dare hope for ordinary things? Mundane things. Desires we dare not share with others who may be so spiritually high-minded that they would ridicule us if they knew that we “bothered God with such petty prayers.”
Bring them all to God. He is interested in the cries of our heart, the yearning of our souls. God is honored when we seek him on a silent night, or on a bustling subway in the heat of the day. Like a good Father, God waits for us to share what’s on our minds.
Perhaps, while the stores have literally decked the halls with twinkling lights beaming on expensive gifts and Christmas must-haves, you are thinking about making it through another holiday season of loneliness, food insecurity, or ill health.
Or perhaps, you are planning to fellowship with family and friends but you feel pangs of disappointment that some of these loved ones have not yet committed their lives to Jesus Christ.
The psalmist advises us not to be discouraged.
Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
(Psalm 42:11, NIV)
Trust God in everything. Put your hope in God!
PRAYER: O Lord, our God, you are our hope in ages past. And we still lean on you in present times for peace and joy. Assure us that you are ever with us, now, and in the age to come. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
©M©dytations 2023