Abounding In Hope

Romans 15:13 (NASB)
¹³  Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. 


While we think of God as holy, righteous, powerful, do we really think of Him as a God of hope? That is exactly what this verse says. God is a God of hope. One way to define hope is confident expectation.

Though God sees everything and knows everything, He is still a God of hope. Think about it. God sees every sin, act of rebellion, perverse and putrid practice, and still He is a God of confident expectation. God has been mocked, rejected, denied, belittled, questioned, and He is still a God of hope.

We see less than God sees and know far less than He knows but we are prone to lose hope. For believers in Christ, we of all people on the face of the earth,  need to have hope. Hope that a better eternal home awaits us than planet earth. Hope that sorrows can be comforted. Hope that the nation will repent and return to the Lord in revival. Hope that the lost will get saved. Hope that the prayers will be answered. Hope that God will give strength in the difficult days. Hope that even nights of weeping come to an end eventually. Hope that God helps us face both triumphs and adversity. We should not only have hope but we should be abounding or overflowing with hope.

That hope will manifest itself in joy and peace. I read this verse this morning during my devotion. Afterward, I went to the kitchen to  cook breakfast. To my surprise the kitchen lights did not turn on. Neither did the kitchen ceiling fans or the lights over the breakfast nook. I went out in the garage and those lights did not work either. The refrigerator we have in the garage was not working.

Needless to say, in that moment, I had zero joy and zero peace. I looked for a flashlight. Of course the first two I found did not have batteries. Less joy and less peace. I finally found one that worked and went to the fuse box. I could barely make out what was what but tried flipping the fuses. That did not work. By this time I had negative joy and negative peace. I did not abound with hope.

Since cooking was out of the question I looked forward to a bowl of cereal. The older boys used all the milk. Now hope, joy, and peace were plummeting in my life like the Titanic. I began scrambling wondering who to call for help. I do not know any electricians. My whole morning started off in frustration.

Funny I never made the connection between what God spoke to me this morning through [Romans 15:13] and my circumstances. God tried to prepare me. God saw what I would experience. I did not abound in hope. Truth is I forgot about the whole thing for a little while.

Once the sun rose I went back to the fuse box. For the third time I flipped every fuse including the main. Hope surfaced half way through when I heard the refrigerator in the garage turn on. I finished with the fuses and walked to the light switch in the garage. Bingo, it worked. So did the lights in the kitchen. All was well in the Edwards household again. Hope returned.

The sad truth is I allowed my circumstances to get the best of my joy, peace, and hope. God who sees all and knows all had hope readily available by the power of the Holy Spirit but I refused to receive it. I walked in the flesh in those frustrating moments rather than than in Spirit. The Holy Spirt had abounding joy, abounding peace, and abounding hope ready to be poured out on my life to overflowing.

Please learn from my pathetic example. No matter what you are facing God is still a God of hope if you believe Him in the midst of your chaos He still pours out abounding hope for people. Even hope for the most hopeless situations.

It is sad that now I am abounding in hope. The God of hope was always there. He always will be. He always has been. Take comfort brothers and sisters. The God of abounding hope is available for you.