Sunday 20 January 2008

Abounding in hope

“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 15v13

Can you imagine a life without hope? Can you imagine if there was no joy in the morning, no light at the end of the tunnel? Can you imagine if there was nothing to look forward to?

Sadly, for some folks, there are situations that don’t get better. Paralysed limbs do not begin to function, marriages break down, ministries never do grow, and the finances never do get better. How do you rejoice when it doesn’t get better?

Sometimes our hope has to come from remembering that our God is a God of hope. It is part of His character; it is part of Who He is. There are many people, as evidenced in a previous post on this platform who live in what most of us would consider unbearable situations. Yet they seem to have the ability to abound in hope. How? Perhaps because they know the God of hope better than most of us do.

At the end of the day there really isn’t much hope in this world today. But we have a special privilege – we have the God of all Hope as our God. If we keep that in focus we can indeed abound in His hope.

Men are going to fail us, there is no hope in elections, churches are going to disappoint us, men are going to fall, and our bodies are going to let us down. But praise God that there is a God of hope.

And praise Him that we can abound in that hope!

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