Abound in Hope

Romans 15:13 (NET)

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Biblical concept of hope differs greatly from what we see in our everyday lives. We hope that we will get a pay raise, we hope that we won’t oversleep our alarm, we hope we will be able to afford a new car… All of these examples are what we would call wishful thinking.

When the Bible talks about hope, it means something entirely different. The Strong’s Concordance defines the word hope in Romans 15:13 as:

expectation of good; joyful and confident expectation…

When we hope in God, He wants us to confidently expect that He will do what He promised to do. We see an example of this from Abraham’s life when Paul discusses this earlier in Romans 4 (verses 18-21):

Against hope Abraham believed in hope with the result that he became the father of many nations according to the pronouncement, “so will your descendants be.” Without being weak in faith, he considered his own body as dead (because he was about 100 years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God. He was fully convinced that what God promised he was also able to do.

God gave Abraham a promise, and he hoped that God would fulfill His promise. This wasn’t wishful thinking, rather, it was a confident belief and trust that the Lord would accomplish what He had said He would do for Abraham and Sarah.

God wants us today to confidently trust that He will make good on His promises. Paul even specifies by praying that we would abound in hope.

The word abound in the Greek means:

• to exceed a fixed number of measure, to be left over and above a certain number or measure

a) to be over, to remain

b) to exist or be at hand in abundance

• to be great (abundant)
• a thing which comes in abundance, or overflows unto one, something falls to the lot of one in large measure

You get this idea that God wants us to be overflowing with hope as we walk in trust with Him.

This takes faith. When we are following God down His path for our lives, we don’t see everything, and we can’t see how it will all work together. But, we need to discipline ourselves to trust and know that God will be faithful to us.

The important thing to remember is that we don’t have to do this on our own… we have the power of the Holy Spirit to help us abound in hope. What a sweet thought! God desires for us to trust Him to an overflowing level, and then also provides the power to do so through His Spirit.

No matter what you may be facing today, I pray that would be filled to overflowing with hope that the Lord will show you His goodness.

God With Us

Immanuel

The incarnation of Jesus is something that I don’t think I will ever be able to get over. My mind can’t fully wrap around the idea of God taking on human flesh. Jesus is just as much God as He is man. He isn’t half-and-half. How is that even possible? I don’t think our human brains are designed to understand it.

Christmas is the celebration of this act: God becoming flesh. Over 2,000 years ago, a baby’s cry rang out in the night and forever changed the world. Before Jesus, there was only darkness. There was no hope. No solution to cure the curse of sin and separation from God. But on that night, something happened:

So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness… (John 1:14)

That baby was hope in bodily form. A way had been provided to bring man back to God. He was the light. He was the change we needed.

It’d have been one thing if Jesus took on flesh to come to the world to rule it immediately. It would be have one thing for Him to just come down and snap His fingers and fix everything. But that’s not what happened. He came in the form of a helpless baby. A baby born to a girl who was not considered special by the world. He grew up in obscurity. Jesus didn’t come to earth and claim what was rightfully His…

Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. (Phil. 2:7-8)

Not that is what I find to be most amazing... He gave up His glory and His seat at the side of the Father to come and die for me. He died when I was His enemy. While I was dead in my sin He came to my rescue! Now that is love. That is grace. That is something worth celebrating!

The Christmas season is a great time to be reminded of what Jesus did for us. It’s a great time to re-evaluate our lives and look deeply into our priorities. Jesus’ coming demands a response from us. We can’t think about it and not be changed. We must respond.

He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them. (2 Cor. 5:15)

We should live for Christ. He gave up everything for us; we should reciprocate. He is worthy of that.

Take Time to Remember

Psalm 77:11-14 NET

"I will remember the works of the LORD. Yes, I will remember the amazing things you did long ago. I will think about all you have done; I will reflect upon your deeds.” O God, your deeds are extraordinary. What god can compare to our great God? You are the God who does amazing things; you have revealed your strength among the nations.

Earlier in this Psalm, the writer was expressing how God seemed distant and inactive in his life. The weapon to fight against discouragement and doubt is to remember all that the LORD has done in the past.

There are 2 ways to accomplish this... First, get into the Word and read the amazing stories of God’s faithfulness to act on behalf of His followers. Second, begin keeping a journal of your life. You can keep a record of all of the times God has come through for you. So, down the road, when you get discouraged, you can remind yourself of all that He has done in your life. You’d be surprised how much you can forget. But, a journal memorializes those moments forever.

So, if you’re struggling today with wondering what God is doing in your life, look back, and see how He has been faithful.

---

This song from Lauren Daigle speaks perfectly to this topic. I hope it encourages you! Keep holding on to faith.