Hope is a good thang!

 

Wake the Faith up Slayer… This is Garth Heckman with the David Alliance and you can reach me at

TDAgiantslayer@gmail.com 

 

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Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. Shawshank redemption. 

 

YOu can get through just about anything if you have hope. Hope is the gas to living faithfully to the end of the trial. 

In todays world I see a lack of hope… people see the headlines and hear all the social media and news experts talk on how bad everything is…

and in fact despair sells… not hope. But even in the hardest of times. (and I am not saying we are not in some perilous times) But even in the worst of times we can navigate with joy and comfort if we understand the power of hope. 

 

In Romans 5:3-5, Paul says that we can rejoice in our sufferings because we are a people of hope: “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:3–5, ESV).

 

I love the translation that says HOPE does not disappoint. And it surely doesn’t. But how does one get hope while going through the pain of life? 

 

 

Romans 15:13

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.

 

We see 3 critical elements in this verse. First God is the God of hope. It is in his nature, it is his DNA, if you were to squeeze God hope would come out. its simply who he is. 

 

If you know God you should have an everlasting source of hope. Secondly it answers when we can expect to get hope… NOW. NOW is the time for hope. 

Not once our problems are solved, not once we win the lottery or get a wife or a new job or the kids are out of the house… but NOW. 

 

Third and this sounds weird but hope is cyclical. The verse says the God of hope will fill you so that you may have hope. So we know God, he fills us with hope and it strengthens our understanding of who he is bringing us more hope. 

 

And how is this done? buy the power of his Holy Spirit. Today may you simply call out to God and say Father, I need who you are - HOPE - to fill me with who you are - HOPE. and so I now trust, rest and expect your spirit to fill me. And watch what happens, yOU will start to see new things, new possibilities and new opportunities in the struggle of life, It will grow in you.