May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15: 13, NRSV.
Dear God, we are truly grateful for Your goodness toward us. We pray that as we gather to study Your Word, we might be filled with hope. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Paul is wishing for the believers in Rome, that God would fill them with all joy and peace in believing, and, that as a result, they would abound, in hope. That is a wonderful wish! Notice carefully, that there are three parts to this wish. There is joy and peace, and then there is an abundance of hope! These are three parts of the same fruit; the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, this wish could only be granted, by “the power of the Holy Spirit.”
There is another component: faith, or believing. They would have this joy and peace, which would lead to hope; in the measure that they believed! But what should they believe? If we go to verse 4 of this same chapter we find the following: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.” There we have it. The Holy Scriptures, sent to us, from the God of hope, were to be the starting point. Let us look up another text to substantiate that premise, “So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ” (Romans 10: 17, NRSV). Now, let us put all the pieces together.
The apostle Paul, writing to the believers in Rome, commended them to the Scriptures. These Scriptures came from the God of hope. There they would find encouragement. As they remained steadfast in the instructions received through the Scriptures, they would have hope. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, they would be filled with all joy and peace, as they believed the Scriptures. As a result, their hope would abound! So simple, and yet so powerful!
The process begins with the God of hope, and ends in the power of the Holy Spirit! What part do we play in order to receive the fulfillment of this wish? Making ourselves available to the God of Hope, that He may fill us with His Holy Spirit! By His grace, we can do it!