Overflow with Hope in 2024

Have you ever been low in hope? Have you ever had days when things just seemed hopeless?Have you ever been in a situation when you thought ‘There is no way that this can turn around, there is no way anything positive can come out of this’.

Take a look at this verse:

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

One of the things I love about this verse is… it’s actually a prayer…is that Paul calls God the God of HOPE.

Scripture calls God the God of hope because that is the result of a relationship with a God like this.  Hope is the expectation that good is on the way. That this good God is working things out for our good.  And I love that God is called the God of Hope because it’s not like we are asking for something that God doesn’t know anything about.

Hope is something that God specializes in.

Hope is something that God gives to His people.

Sometimes we have negative feelings about God — maybe we may think about God as a judge, or waiting for us to mess up. We shouldn’t associate God with feelings of burden or sadness, quite the opposite, we should think about God as a God of hope, because that is what God gives.  And Paul says that God will fill us with all joy and peace and that we will get that as we trust in God.

When we trust people, very often trust and peace is not what comes up because people can let us down, they are human and here’s what’s different about God…God always keeps his promises. You can trust God.

God is a promise keeping God.

And the more we trust God the more we are filled with joy and peace because God always keeps His promises. The result of that is, what Paul says, “so that we may overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit.”

You know those times when things are hard and you start to feel a little bit hopeful? That is not what Paul is praying for, Paul is praying that we would overflow with hope. Paul is praying that we would experience an abundance of hope— more hope that our hearts can even hold!

Earlier in this chapter, Paul points to one great reason to rejoice and that is God sending His son Jesus as our Saviour.

We have so many reasons to hope!

As we move further into 2024, 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.

Hello 2024!

The year 2023 is over and a new year, as it always does, holds in it potential and possibility.   

On New Year’s Eve, after watching the ball drop in Times Square from the comfort of our cottage, our little group of old friends moved to the couches around the fire. We have a tradition of going around the room and asking the question, “So, what will this New Year bring?”  This year was different.

It was clear — as the men quietly made their way from the circle to the table where they began ‘solving’ some geopolitical matter while nursing their recently poured beverage —that they had no interest in participating in a ‘hopeful 2024 discussion’. The ladies remaining around the circle didn’t have much to add either.  I heard things like, “the last few years have been hard, I can plan all I want but thank goodness I have learned to be flexible!” OR, “well I hope to travel but we’ll see ;)”

Honestly, I didn’t know what to say either.  I have no idea what this year will bring.  Our most recent Christmas plans didn’t go as planned, why would anything else?? I was almost afraid to utter my hopes for fear they would only be dashed by another pandemic or plague of locusts or Lord only knows what!

Earlier in the day I had looked back at my journal and found that my hope for 2023 was not about accomplishing a task or goal but rather pursuing a state of being. My hope for 2023 was to be content in all areas of my life. In hindsight, I am not sure how successful I was that ;)

In this new year my hope is for peace.  Peace in my spirit, even the midst of the unplanned, and to be hopeful and confident that the ONE that I serve will help me navigate whatever this year brings.

I will move into 2024 with confidence and excitement because God was with us in 2023, (and 2022 and 2021 and every year before that) just as God has from the beginning, and God will be there until the end.

Immanuel, God with us, is a promise that endures.

So goodbye 2023, hello 2024!  May 2024 be full of Peace, Potential and Possibilities for all of us!

Proverbs 3:5-6.  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to God and God will make your paths straight.

God is faithful...hope in the Lord!

As a child, did you ever on Santa’s knee and whisper what you really wanted for Christmas? You hoped and hoped only to be disappointed on Christmas morning? Maybe in hindsight you should have told your parents too?

Or perhaps as an adult, you were promised something perhaps a raise or promotion, and you hoped and hoped and it never transpired? Or a relationship you had hoped would work out didn’t go the distance. Or perhaps you had hoped that a loved one would be spared from a sickness… you hoped and hoped only to lose them. Hebrew 10:23 says

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

In our current climate it is often hard to hold on to hope, I dare say it is next to impossible, without a faith in God.

Our confession is not in the external circumstances of our lives or the things we possess but in the true and living God.

One of our most treasured gifts is our relationship with Jesus.  Through this relationship, God demonstrates His faithfulness through every circumstance and every season of our lives.

Our identity lies in the fact that we can’t be our own Saviour because that identity lies in someone bigger than us.

The focus of this passage is on the one who promises, God.  God is faithful.  People will promise us many things but circumstances may cause them to fail on the delivery of those promises.

Hope is an essential part of our everyday existence, so remember “He who promised is faithful.” The almighty, all powerful, all knowing, all loving God — the God who loves you yesterday, today and tomorrow — is faithful.

…. those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.   Isaiah 40:31