Some musings about hope(less)(full)ness
“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Rom. 15:13, NLT)
I need to keep this verse handy because I have a problem with hope. I seem to live in and come across lots of stuff that drains my hope. Some of it comes out of figuring out myself and dealing with growing up issues. Some of it comes out because life seems hard lots of days.
A colleague at work shared a story about his family who had 3 kids during World War II. His parents’ testimony of faith in the midst of the common sense wisdom to hold off having children during the dark times, showed they trusted that God would not let that darkness stay forever. They continued to hope and lived out that hope.
The Apostle Paul is also telling me something significant – that it is God who gives me hope. It is not something I need to manufacture within myself. Rather, it comes from the power of the Spirit. That’s hopeful!