Lost and Found: Peace, Hope, and Joy
“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)
Read Romans 15:1-33
Lost and Found: Peace, Hope and Joy
Have you ever tried to discuss spiritual matters with someone and asked, “Do you know that you’ll go to heaven when you die?” and the person responded, “Well, I hope so?” For many of us, there was a time when we would have answered in a similar way.
“I hope so.” That’s about the best one can offer from a worldly perspective: basically wishful thinking. Kind of like, “‘Do you think you’ll get that promotion (or raise) you’ve been hoping for?’ ‘I hope so.’” Or, “‘Your team (fill in the name) has a huge game this weekend. Do you think they’ll win?’ ‘I certainly hope so.’”
But that kind of hoping doesn’t necessarily make things so, does it? Desired promotions and expected pay raises don’t always come. Our favorite teams, even if heavily favored, don’t always win. That kind of hope is as reliable as a morning fog that quickly dissipates when the sun rises, along with the temperature.
What about the hope we have as followers of Jesus Christ? The Bible actually has a lot to say about hope. Is it the same ‘hope so’ that’s so common in our cold, unpredictable, unreliable world?
In studying the Scriptures, we discover faith and hope are inseparable, like two sides of the same coin. As Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Think of those two phrases: “substance of things hoped for” and “evidence of things not seen.” Do things we’re hoping for have substance? In a court of law, can we submit evidence that can’t be seen?
But that’s exactly what biblical faith and hope are. In so many words, God is saying, “Trust Me. I won’t fail you. You can take that promise to the bank.”
Living in a tangible world, relying on our five senses for just about everything, this can be difficult. We want to see, to hear, to hold the things we’re depending on. But even then, the things – and people – we’re trusting in don’t always come through for us. But as our faith in God grows, as well as experiences we have in walking with Him day after day, we discover that our ‘hope’ can be as certain as tonight’s sunset and tomorrow’s sunrise.
We saw this described earlier during our journey through the book of Romans, the apostle Paul’s letter to believers in Rome. He said, “For in this hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, through perseverance we wait eagerly for it” (Romans 8:24).
Other terms that can help in understanding the hope we have as followers of Jesus are ‘confident assurance’ and ‘earnest expectation.’ In fact, that’s how Paul expressed it as he sat in a prison cell, knowing the end of his earthly life was near: “I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20).
The Scriptures make it abundantly clear that our hope – our trust in the Lord and His promises – isn’t about ‘hope-so,’ hoping that things will work out. It’s being assured that the eternal, unchanging God will do what He has promised.
And this assurance is not only for today and tomorrow, but for the life to come. Paul expressed it this way: “While we wait for the blessed hope – and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).