HOPE
Romans 15:13
Our God is the God of hope and you and I as His people should bring hope into people’s lives. We should smile and make people feel better for having met us. The world has enough negativity: we, the light of the world shouldn’t be in hiding.
This verse begins with great urgency: all this is to happen right Now! Why would you put hope of a blessed future on hold? Don’t put off coming to Jesus, getting baptised, reading your Bible, meeting with God in prayer. Do it now. Don’t put off doing things for other people either, be a bringer of healing and life.
The God of hope will fill you and the foundation of hope is faith. Faith in God’s promises gives you hope for your future. Grow your faith in God’s promises by speaking them aloud. Our words have power. God tells us to be like Him and He spoke to the world about what He wanted to see. We are made in God’s image and we should follow His example instead of waiting for Him to do everything.
Focus on the good things in your life, not the circumstances in your life you don’t like. Thank God for the good things and when you speak about your future, speak in hope of good outcomes.
God is the God of hope so if you have God, you have hope. Paul said that ‘Christ in you is the hope of glory’ (Colossians 1:27) and Jesus Christ was un-killable. There were so many attempts on His life and even when He was crucified, He came back to life. With Jesus inside you, all things will work together for your good (Romans 8:28).
God will fill you with joy. Joy is not the same as happiness, which depends upon our circumstances. We can have joy even when our circumstances are horrible because it is built on the solid rock of Jesus. Ps Phil told the story of a mud slide in their town in New Zealand which washed away many houses. A friend of theirs was still full of joy and sat on the roof of his mud-filled home, singing praises to God.
God fills us with peace too. We have all had a bad email or phone call which sends us on an emotional rollercoaster between anxiety and anger. If you choose to have faith that God will move in the situation, you exit the rollercoaster and are filled with God’s peace. This is something we regularly fail to do and that is why these reminders in the Bible and in church are so important. When you come to church and worship, you come close to God and He can fill you up with His Holy Spirit. The negative news that surrounds us all day long needs to be swapped for a solid anticipation that God will move in your world.
Hope is a helmet which protects our head and thinking. Ps Phil told the story of Hagar (Genesis 21) who was blinded by despair when she took her son and left Abraham’s family. God visited her as she waited to die in the desert and opened her eyes -there was a well right in front of them. We also see people in the New Testament who were so blinded by despair that they didn’t recognise God on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24). Have faith in the God of hope who never forsakes us.
