Experiencing true, complete hope: "the work of sanctifying grace"
Romans 15:13 “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.”
Paul makes an important claim about God and the work of God’s grace in our lives through this verse. Paul claims that God is the source of hope and that in our faith we are filled completely with joy and peace. This filling overflows our lives with hope and all is a result of the power of the Holy Spirit. It is through God’s sanctifying grace that we are able to experience hope in the first place. Hope comes from God not from ourselves and it is through this work of grace that we are able to stand in the face of evil and proclaim hope in Jesus Christ.
There are many times in my life that I feel hopeless and in those times it seems that it is my responsibility to find hope and that hope should come from myself. This implies that I am the source of my own hope and when I make this assumption I am setting myself up for hopeless disappointment. This verse reminds me today that God is the source of my hope. It is through Jesus Christ that I am able to experience a hope that leads to joy and peace. The only thing different in the equation of my life today is Jesus Christ and it is through Him that I am able to live a life of hope through the work of God’s sustaining grace.
Lord Jesus may you help me today to depend on you for my hope. I pray that you would protect me from the temptation to think that I am the author and producer of my own hope. Forgive me today for those times that I have tried to act upon a false hope that I was producing myself and give me the grace to respond to your work in my life that I may experience true and freeing hope that leads to complete joy and peace. Amen.
It is through Jesus’ work in my life that I experience true, complete hope.
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