“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15:13 NKJV
A human being can live without almost anything except hope.
Hope is not only important or beneficial, it’s essential for our survival
Victor E Frankl who survived the Aushwitzconcentration camp said:
“prisoners who gave up on life, who had lost all hope for a future were inevitably the first to die. They died less from lack of food or medicine than from lack of hope, lack of something to live for.”
When Israel & Judah had been taken into captivity God knew that the greatest threat to their survival was not their captivity but it was a loss of hope. SoGod said to them:
“After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. 11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:1-11 NKJV
Likewise regardless of our current circumstances God wants us to be filled with Hope as we look into our Future
It’s so easy to see our future through the lens of our present experience, our limitations, a feeling of being overwhelmed, not knowing what to do next, all of which create a sense of hopelessness.
But God is the God of hope who can fill us with hope, joy and peace even in the midst of our greatest difficulties.
When Paul was on a ship bound for Rome, in a storm that was about to sink everyone on board, all hope of being saved was lost. Paul stood up and said; “don’t lose hope, take heart because God is going to save us all”
Paul was able to proclaim a different future, and to infuse hope in those onboard, because He knew God as a God of Hope and he knew the truth of the words he wrote to the church in Rome: “hope [in God’s promises] never disappoints us” Romans 5:5
So the more we get to know Jesus this year, the more hope will rise in us, and the more our lives will be filled with joy and peace because our hope is in the God of hope who never disappoints.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace this year as you believe in Him and abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.