Devotion:
For an audio version of this devotion, click here.
Read Romans 15:13.
The Apostle Paul is nearing the end of his letter to the Christians in Rome. I even wonder if this wasn’t an intended ending, before he thought of some other things he wanted to add. What a great blessing to offer to anyone, filled with encouragement and inspiration. Paul has been talking about this God we worship throughout the letter and now gives the description “the God of hope.” It is this God in which we are invited to place our ultimate hope.
Don’t miss the piece of this blessing that invites those who receive it to share this hope with others. We are invited to let this hope of God overflow out of us into the lives of other people. It would be good for all of us who follow Jesus Christ to ask ourselves if people experience a sense of hope when they are around us. If hope is not flowing out of you, why not?
I can’t read this verse anymore without thinking of how Eugene Peterson states it in his The Message translation, so I offer it here to close: “Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!”
Personal Worship option:
Offer this prayer or put it in your own words: God of hope, thank you so much for that life-giving force! Help me be wide-open to receiving it from you, so that it overflows from me to people I meet every day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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