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The God of Hope The Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Romans (chapter 15 verse 13) ?Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.? Paul here under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote down his hope for the church at Rome which was that God would fill them to the brim with joy and peace through believing and that they would grow and be strengthened in their hope. Paul in the beginning of this verse affirms two very important truths. He says the ?God of Hope? the first thing this implies is that God is the sole supplier of true Hope. When we begin to grasp what true hope is there is no denying that the only way to have this true hope is to have the God of hope to work this in us. Hope as used in the Bible is a stronger word than the one we use today. Today we use it in such a way that there is no firmness to it. We may say ?I hope it rains today.? what we are saying is it would be really nice if it did rain. The biblical word for hope is (elpis which means: to anticipate with pleasure, expectation or confidence) in other words hope is to expect, and anticipate something to come to pass. So to use this in a natural way we would say ?I hope it rains today? using the biblical word for hope we are saying ?I expect and anticipate it to rain today?. There is no doubt in the mind that it?s going to rain. When we understand this to be true and then look at ourselves knowing we are creatures of constant doubt we are lead to draw the conclusion that true hope can only come from the God of hope. James tell us in chapter 1 verse 17 that ?every good gift and every perfect gift is from above? knowing this also, hope being a good and perfect gift , can only come from God. The second thing this tells us is that God should be the sole object of our hope. In psalm 60:11 we are told ?vain is the help of man? and in psalms 52 we find the result of a man that trust in things of this world. Since God is the giver of hope he is the only being to put any trust in. vain is the help of man, and man is a sinful creature. so why should we put our hope in him? We truly can?t expect with firm expectation when we put our hope in man, there is a great chance of failure when it comes to man and NO chance of failure when it comes to God. The things of this world also provide no sure foundation to stand upon, but God is a foundation which CANNOT be moved. The things in this world and the people in this world are weak and vain, but the God we serve is all-powerful, and abundant in grace, and mercy! So we should hope in nothing besides God Almighty, He, and He alone should be the only object of our hope! The next thing we notice in this passage is Paul?s prayer that God would ?fill you with all joy and peace in believing?. He says to fill you with all joy and peace in believing. The Greek word for fill here means to: satisfy, fill up, furnish. What Paul is saying here is that God will: satisfy, fill to the brim, and furnish, them with joy and peace by their believing. There is a joy and a peace which comes from putting your expectation in God. In 1Peter 1:8 peter says ?in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory?. When we believe on him there is a joy unspeakable, a joy which cannot be explained with natural words, and a peace, as Paul says in Phil 4:7, which ?passeth all understanding?. Some would say there is no power in the gospel, I agree it cannot save us eternally, but the powerful joy and peace it gives when we do believe it and expect the things that are written therein to come to pass cannot be explained with human logic. What is the purpose of being filled with joy and peace in believing? ?That you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.? It is so you will grow deeper and stronger in your hope and expectation through the power of God! The word abound here means ?to super abound, to excel, or to increase? we are filled with joy and peace when we believe, and it should not stop there, but on the contrary it should make us to excel in hope or grow toward a perfect or mature hope. The way it usually works though is that we become filled with joy and peace when we believe and sit there and never move. We sink into the arm chair of comfortableness enjoying our nice cup of joy and peace soon to find ourselves on the floor of anguish snuggled up in the blanket of self pity wondering what in the world has happened! We miss the mark if we think that is why these graces are given to us. We are given these graces to enjoy but more importantly we are given them as motivation to pursue God more. May the God of hope fill all of us in every church with unspeakable joy and inconceivable peace, in believing that we may by His power and grace excel and super abound in hope.
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