On Sunday I was listening to a sermon by Bill Johnson, (Bethel - Redding, CA) and he was talking about joy and peace, in a really excellent teaching. This morning I was reading from Roman's and came across the following verse - Romans 15:13 NIV: "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."
That is such a short verse, yet is full of much to think upon. First, Paul calls Him the God of hope, and that is such an interesting title. When we look at the reality of God, He is all-powerful, all-knowing, eternal, and outside of time, we can understand why He is the God of hope. He sees and knows all, is in control, and sees how everything will work out in time. He knows the beginning, middle and the end. He knows our hearts, our thoughts, our actions and every day of our lives. He is never surprised, and it always working to bring about the fulfillment of His purposes and plans, which none can thwart.
Hope is always focused on the future, looking towards what is yet to be, and God knows what will be. When He speaks about the future, He is always right for He has seen it. When He makes promises about our future, He is always accurate, for He knows what will happen, for from His vantage point He sees it all. Thus, when God speaks about our future, or gives us a promise, we can be filled with hope! The only thing we don't know is when, and that is a great definition of hope: waiting for the day when the promise is fulfilled, confident that it will be fulfilled!
Coupled with the hope, Paul then writes about our being filled with joy and peace as you trust in God. Based on my previous paragraphs, I can understand that. If I am confident that I have received a promise from God, then my mind and heart should be at peace concerning its fulfillment, for I know the one who has made the promise.
For example, if I promise my wife that I am going to buy her a ring for her birthday (which is something I have done more than a time or two), and I have the means to buy one, my wife is not worried, or troubled about whether I will do what I promised. She is not concerned as to whether I am able to do what I promised. All she has to do is wait for her birthday, and as she does, she will be filled with joy and excitement, and peace regarding her promised gift. She won't be anxious, or doubting my promise, for I have demonstrated on multiple occasions that I will buy her a ring when I promise I will. She can have 100% confidence that my promise will be fulfilled. The only difference is that she knows the date, whereas with the Lord, we often don't know the exact date.
Continuing on this theme, notice, also, that it is God who fills us with joy and peace. The joy and peace are not primarily internally generated, or responses, but rather a gift of sorts from the Lord! I will say this, if someone offers to refill my coffee cup, and I say no thanks, they usually will walk away and I won't have any fresh coffee in my cup.
If the Lord wants to fill us with joy and peace, the only reason I can think of that I wouldn't experience this in-filling is if I say no. I might reject His joy and peace, because I am holding onto some unfulfilled expectations, or maybe I am bitter or angry about something that didn't go the way I thought it should (again expectations). I saw a note yesterday that said comparison is the thief of joy (Teddy Roosevelt), but I don't think that is exactly right. In this case, I think it actually unbelief that is the thief of joy. If we look at Genesis 3:1-14, we see that it wasn't comparison that led Eve to sin, but rather the suggestion that God didn't have her best interests in mind, and her believing that lie and acting on it. She didn't believe that God loved her and had the best plan for her. Rather than embracing the beauty of all creation around her, she suddenly was filled with a belief that God was holding something back. In other words, her belief in the goodness of God had turned to unbelief. She could have looked all around her and view God's abundance and goodness, and instead she focused on the one thing He said she couldn't eat, believing that He was withholding something good from her. Joy in abundance was replaced with unbelief, anger, rebellion and sin.
As I look at my present disappointments, I see something similar. I allow my expectations, my idea of how things will work out, to color my perception of my present situation. Rather than relying on the bed-rock of truth, that God is good, that He loves me, the He only has good plans and purposes for me, I look at those things that are different than I expected. I am not looking at the truth, I am looking at my own ideas, my own dreams, my own plans. At my very best I will never understand perfectly God's plans and purposes, and His perfect words spoken over my life. I need to trust God, trust His word, and know that His plans are much bigger and much better than I could ever dream or think. Rather than focusing on that which I think is missing, I can choose to look at all of the incredible blessings and provision the Lord has provided both recently and in the past. I can choose to remember God's goodness and blessings, and remind myself of how good He has shown Himself to be, over and over again.
God knew we (humans) struggled with remembering the past, and with learning from our experiences, so many of the commands to Israel involved remembering and building memorial markers. For example the feast of Passover, was to remind them of their miraculous deliverance from slavery in Egypt. When they crossed the Jordan river into the promised land, He had them build a memorial using 12 stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan (Josh 4: 1-14). In the same way, we can create memorial markers to remind us on the blessings of God. When I want to be reminded of God's goodness, I can just read back over my countless journal entries and see His hand constantly providing, protecting and guiding me! I can choose to reflect on His goodness, and on His word. I can read and reread His promises to me, and focus on the hope they speak of, and the promise yet to be experienced and I can remind myself of His goodness and faithfulness.
Lord, I choose to believe in Your goodness and faithfulness in spite of any circumstance that is before me. I am choosing to remember how much You love me, and all the things that You have spoken to me and over me. I choose to believe that all will be fulfilled in the perfection of Your plan, at exactly the right time! I choose to believe that You have seen the future and are speaking with that knowledge!
I pray that You will pour into me joy and peace, as I put my trust in You.
Amen!
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