A Blessing Beyond all Blessings

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

A BLESSING BEYOND ALL BLESSINGS

Rom 15:13

13 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.

NIV

May the God of all our expectations, which is the meaning of the Greek word translated as hope. We put all our hope in God. Hope for our resurrection. Hope for his deliverance from all our fears, and yes even from evil. Hope for his protection through this life, and hope for our eternal life. The reason we put all our expectations in God is that he is the God of hope. Who else can we put our hope in? We certainly cannot put our hope in ourselves, for what can we do without Christ? The fact is we can do nothing without Christ, for he is the root and we are but the branches. How can a branch even live with the root, much less produce any fruit? No, we must always be connected to Christ, so then we put all our hope in God. He is the one that as we put our trust in him, fills us with all joy and peace. Once again, we refer to the Greek to find that joy is all gladness or the cause or occasion for joy. This would mean that we live our lives filled to the brim with gladness. The reason is that we know God and He knows us. That is to say, we are in Christ and have been given the right to be called children of God. We have been saved from death and given eternal life. How could we not be filled with joy about that? Yet, it seems at times we become overwhelmed with the pressures of the world, and we do not look, talk and behave like someone filled with joy. But the fact is we are filled with joy and we should not suppress it or allow the world to steal it. However, it is not just joy alone that we are filled with God has also filled us with peace. Of course, we should remember this is also because we trust in the God of hope. As we turn to the Greek again we find the primary meaning of this Greek word translated as peace is the absence of the havoc of war. We could use that to say there should be no war that wages within us, for we should be at peace within ourselves, with ourselves, for we are in Christ, and he is in us. We could also use this word to define the peace or harmony or concord between individuals, which would mean that we would all live as this one great choir singing in tune, making harmony as we praise the Lord. However, in the Christian sense, this word carries the meaning of the tranquil state of our soul assured of our salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with our earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is. Then we still have the power of the Holy Spirit who causes us to overflow, to be exceedingly, abundantly more than is just full, with hope. This is a blessing beyond all blessings.