Filled With Hope

Romans 15:13

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.

Everyone wants to have hope and every one needs hope. Hope helps us to view the future and it gives us the sense of certainty that it will be good. It’s a natural internal drive and gives us motivation for today.

The farmer plants his seed today because of hope in the fruit. The shopkeeper buys inventory today because of hope that it will sell. The entrepreneur invests his time and money today to build a business because of hope.

But many in our culture today have lost hope and feel that they have no expectation of a future where they will be loved and blessed. We see trouble in our society and in our personal lives and it discourages us.

With no hope, we languish in despair and want to give up. Whats the use in trying hard if it will all go downhill?

So, what are you putting your hope in?

The world puts its hope in the self, our ability to make things work, to solve all our problems, to make things better. But history shows us that this is a weak and unreliable path.

One unexpected turn, one accident, one person that did not come through for you and all of a sudden you can feel hopeless. You have lost your personal peace and can even face crushing depression.

In our verse today, God is repeating a promise heard for all time. He is hope. He offers it to those who will trust Him. He knows what is up ahead and wants us to turn to Him for guidance and provision.

What does it look like when you put your hope in Him?

You have to invest in His way of doing things, to learn to be like Him, to treat yourself and others the way He does and believe that He will cause all things in your life to work for your good, even if it looks like storm clouds are ahead.

Put your hope in the truth that if you commit yourself to love and obey Him, He will give you strength, and patience, and love, and endurance where you did not have it before.

You can have a continually recurring source of hope that will fill you with joy and peace and that hope stirs in you an attitude of thanks.