devotional - day 12

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.

This is one of my favorite verses EVER. I pray it over me and my family everyday. I just love the promise of overflowing hope. I imagine every one of us on a daily basis could use a moment of overflowing hope. The very true byproduct of hope is indeed joy. Hope can bring such incredible feelings of joy! It’s one of my favorite feelings…the joy that comes from hope. 

I won’t lie though. Sometimes hope can be scary. There is often disappointment attached to the end of hope. So there is always that possibility. But what if there isn’t disappointment at the end of a particular hope? What if you are truly tuned into what God wants for you and he makes it happen because what you were hoping for was what God wanted to give you? Oh…see! The joy that that thought can bring!

I have found that even if there is the possibility of disappointment, that I am not going to deny myself that moment of joy in hoping. Because that’s the future and the moment of hopeful joy in the present. So I’d rather be joyfully hopeful (even if I feel foolish for being so) than worryingly focused on the possible disappointment. It’s just so fun and freeing. And I know if there is a disappointment, it won’t be too terrible or last too long, for God will eventually replace it with a new hope! 

Therefore, may you overflow with confident hope in God possibly doing incredible things for you today!