Romans 15:13 “I pray that the God who gives hope will fill you with much joy and peace while you trust in him. Then your hope will overflow by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Hope- a feeling of expectation in a desire for a certain thing to happen.
As kids we are hopeful at birthdays, on Christmas, or anytime or anything, that could result in us getting money or desired toys. We become hopeful when grandma and grandpa come to visit or when we visit them because we know good things will always happen.
I remember as a kid I loved visiting my grandparents because my grandma always had “treasures” around her home I could play with. She had a shelf full of trinkets and music boxes. I loved looking in a jar of buttons because it always had new and different buttons each time we dug through them. Each time we visited my other grandparents in Canada, I was hopeful because it usually meant a trip to our favorite stomping grounds. These small things always made me hopeful because they were fun, and I could always expect good things to happen.
School children find hope in the classes they take when it comes to their grades. Parents are hopeful for their children and the choices they make. We can even wake up full of hope for a good day ahead. Hope is a running theme in all of our lives, and it begins in the Bible.
When you read scripture, you can see hope running through its pages. That is because God knew we needed to have hope for every day to become the kind of Christian He wants us to be.
Romans 15:4 clearly tells us hope is found in the Bible. It's through scripture that we can be encouraged and find reasons to persevere. If we want hope, it can be found in studying and reading the Bible. “Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us. The Scriptures give us patience and encouragement, so that we can have hope.”
I know we all have busy lives with many distractions keeping us from reading our Bibles and Satan will do everything he can to keep us from God's Word. I recently read, “Either sin will keep you from the Bible or the Bible will keep you from sin.”
I love the way the Bible definition of hope reads, Hope- is the confident expectation of what God has promised and its strength in His faithfulness. The truth is, like kids hopeful for good things at Christmas or a birthday, we have been given a wonderful promise of a future with Jesus. What better reason to be hopeful each day?
Unfortunately, there are many discouraged Christians due to circumstances, lost hope, broken hearts, even simply because they have gotten too caught up in the busyness of life or the world’s drama. The first question asked should be, how often do they read the Bible? Studies have shown that Christians who are studying and reading God's word have the most hope in life.
Do you find yourself downcast, discouraged, saddened by the world around you? Maybe a little less hopeful these days. First and foremost, turn to God for strength, next open scripture and allow the pages to fill you. Finally, be confident in the promise of God for salvation and find hope in His faithfulness. Here's to a hopeful day for all of us.
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