“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). I like this little prayer because it teaches
us five important facts.
First,
it says that our God is a “God of hope”.
I love that description! We do
not serve a God that is out to get us or out to make our lives miserable. We serve a God who is defined by hope. Therefore, there is no reason to despair or
give up, because anything can happen.
Nothing is hopeless if God is involved.
Next, this passage tells us that
Christians ought to be filled with all joy and peace. If your Christian walk is making you
miserable or negative, then you are doing something wrong. Note the word “filled” as well. Joy and peace are not qualities that we have
in small measure. Rather, these are the
words that define God’s people.
Interestingly,
these new attitudes come “as you trust in him [God]”. This new life is not solely dependent on me trying
harder. It is not something that I can
create. Rather, it is the gift of God.
God’s
master plan in all of this is that we would “overflow with hope”. The key word here is “overflow”. God’s people should be so full of God’s
blessings that those good things spill out and are seen and felt by all those
around us. Faith is not a personal and
private thing. Rather it is something
that should spill over and make things better every where we go.
Lastly,
this prayer reminds us again that none of this comes about by our own power or our
own best intentions. If we could bring
about these changes on our own, then we would, but it is not possible. The new life that we need is only accessible
“by the power of the Holy Spirit”. I am
not exactly sure what all that entails, but it certainly is nice to know that
there is more going on that what I see or know.
I
wonder what would happen if we really thought about what Romans 15:13 says and
then prayed this little prayer for ourselves and others.
I guess
there is only one way to find out!
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