Have you ever been low in hope? Have you ever had days when things just seemed hopeless?Have you ever been in a situation when you thought ‘There is no way that this can turn around, there is no way anything positive can come out of this’.

Take a look at this verse:

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

One of the things I love about this verse is… it’s actually a prayer…is that Paul calls God the God of HOPE.

Scripture calls God the God of hope because that is the result of a relationship with a God like this. Hope is the expectation that good is on the way. That this good God is working things out for our good. And I love that God is called the God of Hope because it’s not like we are asking for something that God doesn’t know anything about.

Hope is something that God specializes in.

Hope is something that God gives to His people.

Sometimes we have negative feelings about God — maybe we may think about God as a judge, or waiting for us to mess up. We shouldn’t associate God with feelings of burden or sadness, quite the opposite, we should think about God as a God of hope, because that is what God gives. And Paul says that God will fill us with all joy and peace and that we will get that as we trust in God.

When we trust people, very often trust and peace is not what comes up because people can let us down, they are human and here’s what’s different about God…God always keeps his promises. You can trust God.

God is a promise keeping God.

And the more we trust God the more we are filled with joy and peace because God always keeps His promises. The result of that is, what Paul says, “so that we may overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit.”

You know those times when things are hard and you start to feel a little bit hopeful? That is not what Paul is praying for, Paul is praying that we would overflow with hope. Paul is praying that we would experience an abundance of hope— more hope that our hearts can even hold!

Earlier in this chapter, Paul points to one great reason to rejoice and that is God sending His son Jesus as our Saviour.

We have so many reasons to hope!

As we move further into 2024, 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.