"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."  Romans 15:13

In order to become an encounter of hope for others; we must first encounter the God of hope!  During which He fills us with all joy and peace so that by the power of His Spirit working in us we may overflow with hope.

If I was to ask you to give me the ingredients to hope, your list should include:  joy, peace and dunamis (Holy Spirit power).  Together when baked in the oven of intimacy and worship we get hope, overflowing! 

Yet, how many times have you gone without hope in a situation because you were lacking the right ingredients? It's like spending your entire day wanting to make cookies only to find out that when you finally get home and begin to pull out all the ingredients you're missing sugar.  Disappointing to say the least; thus making Proverbs 13:12 come alive ("hope deferred makes the heart grow sick").

Unless we are allowing the Holy Spirit to fill us with joy and peace, the power of hope is not going to overflow from our lives into the situations and relationships around us. How important is hope?  According to Hebrews 11:1  "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." NASB Hope is pretty important.  The rendering of this verse leads us to understand that what we "hoped for" becomes real and significant by the exercise of one's faith.

Therefore, if joy and peace are missing ingredients in your relationship with others, it's going to be hard to experience the power of hope manifest, which is faith.  Maybe, we don't need to spend so much time working up our faith, but maybe asking the Spirit to fill us with joy and peace so that hope arises and becomes the necessary faith for us to move heaven on earth!

I "hope" you will chew on this and spend some time with Father.  "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Romans 14:17 NASB

 

See ya Sunday as we dive deeper into the realm of the Spirit!