Daily Devotion, April 27, 2022

 

Devotion:

Read Romans 8:24-25; 12:12.

This week we are focusing on the hope we always have because of what God did at Easter. In preparation for this devotional, I decided to pay attention to how often I said the word, “hope” and to ask what was its meaning each time? I was surprised at how often I said “hope” on a given day! Its meaning was usually to speak about an event in the future!

I believe Paul, in all of his letters, is speaking of a different understanding of “hope”. Paul’s hope is IN God and IN who God is. This hope is IN the relationship of God’s great love unto us, and IN the gift of Christ, which makes possible our love unto God. Out of God’s love through Christ we have eternal hope and eternal life.

In Romans 7 and the beginning of Romans 8, Paul is teaching his readers about “the life the law could not give.” (N. Thomas Wright, The New Interpreter’s Bible). We cannot save ourselves. God understood this and sent Christ to accomplish what we could not accomplish for ourselves.

Here in these verses for today, Paul writes of the hope we have as the people of Christ. He is calling us to live into the hope which Christ carried with him. Christ’s hope was IN God. Christ lived with confidence that God is continually working on us as individuals and as a whole creation. Romans 8:22 says “That the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” And Romans 12:12 says, “Rejoice in this hope!”

Personal Worship Option:

Jesus’ words in Matthew’s gospel inspired a timeless song, “His Eye Is On The Sparrow” by Civilla D. Martin in 1905. Her last stanza encourages us to find our hope again in God’s care. “Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise, when songs give place to sighing, when hope within me dies. I draw the closer to Him, from care He sets me free; His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me; His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.”