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. Romans 15:13
Matter, the scientists tell us, can exist in one of three states: gas, liquid, or solid. Water, for example, can be either a cloud, a river, or a skating rink. Hope, the topic of today’s text, can also exist in one of these three states. Hope is a desire or expectation that our current circumstances will get better. If it is a gas, hope is little more than wishful thinking, like the children telling us what they want for Christmas. It is intangible and there is nothing that anybody can do or be that will influence it. If hope is a liquid, it can be controlled to a certain extent, by our own efforts. A man can hope to obtain a better job, for instance, even as he seeks diligently to find one, improving his skills, his appearance, and the look of his resume. This type of hope has substance and effort but no certainty. Hope as a solid is the hope that the Bible speaks of, a solid certainty on which we can rest secure: ‘Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil’ – Hebrews 6:19. That is the type of hope that our text is reminding us that we should abound in.
Abounding in hope means allowing the hope to flood our lives and be the guiding influence in everything we do and say and plan. How do we abound in hope? Our text tells us how: by allowing the God of hope to fill us with joy and peace in believing.
Does your belief in God and His salvation give you joy? It should. After all, you are delivered from eternal punishment and guaranteed eternal bliss. You have the Holy Spirit to protect, teach, and guide you every minute of every day. You have the fellowship of the Lord’s people who are interested in what is the best they can do for you instead of the world’s friends who are only interested in the best they can get from you. You have the Word of God as an infinite resource for your comfort and strength. You have the assurance that regardless of all of life’s trials and problems, you have the promise of the Lord Jesus Himself that he will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). All this and many more should cause us to joyfully abound in hope.
Does your belief in God and His salvation give you peace? It should. After all, the enmity that used to exist between us and God is forever gone, and we are forever on His winning side in every battle. We can relax in the knowledge of the eternal security that our Lord gives us. For all of life’s ups and downs, we are assured that the final move is up. In a world that is awash in uncertainty and strife, we stand firm in the certainty of our position in Christ. All this and much more should cause us to peacefully abound in hope.
To abound means to be filled and overflowing. A day in which we allow our hope to fill and overflow us cannot help but be a wonderful day. – Jim MacIntosh