Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
In a world full of uncertainty, this verse from Romans stands like a lighthouse in the storm: “The God of hope…” Not just the God who gives hope, but the very source of it. When everything around us seems shaken — economies falter, nations rage, relationships strain — it is the God of hope who remains unshaken and unchanging.
The apostle Paul is writing this as both a blessing and a prayer. His desire is that believers wouldn’t just scrape by emotionally, but be filled — overflowing with joy and peace. But there’s a condition: “in believing.” Joy and peace are not produced by circumstances going right, but by faith — by believing that God is good, God is near, and God is working all things together for good.
And here’s the beautiful secret: it’s not up to us to manufacture this hope. Paul says it is “by the power of the Holy Spirit” that we abound in hope. That means when you feel empty, weak, or discouraged, you can cry out to the Spirit of God, and He will fill you. This is not wishful thinking; this is supernatural empowerment.
But it doesn’t end with you. The hope God gives is not meant to be bottled up. If you’re not centered in His hope, you’ll have nothing of substance to give to a hopeless world. But when you are filled — when your life is anchored in His peace and joy through faith — you become a vessel that overflows. You begin to spread abounding hope to those around you: in your family, in your workplace, in your community, and even across nations. Hope becomes contagious. And in these last days, a hope-filled believer becomes a blazing signpost pointing to a living Savior.
So rise up, child of God. The world is drowning in fear, division, and despair—but you carry the answer. Let the God of hope fill you so completely that hopelessness has no room to linger. Let joy silence anxiety. Let peace disarm chaos. And let the blazing hope of the Holy Spirit within you pierce the darkness like a sword of light.
This is your calling — not just to survive in these days, but to abound. To be a walking embassy of heaven’s hope. To lift the weary. To speak life into the broken. To shine with a supernatural confidence that the world cannot explain — because your hope isn’t rooted in headlines, but in the unshakable promises of God.
You were not meant to carry a dim candle. You were meant to burn bright with holy fire. So stay centered in His hope—and then go and spread it with boldness, until the whole world knows: there is a God of hope, and His name is Yeshua (Jesus).
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]When Jim Burke became the head of a new products division at Johnson & Johnson, one of his first projects was the development of a children’s chest rub. The product failed miserably, and Burke expected that he would be fired. When he was called in to see the chairman of the board, however, he met a surprising reception. “Are you the one who just cost us all that money?” asked Robert Wood Johnson. “Well I just want to congratulate you. If you are making mistakes, that means you are taking risks, and we won’t grow unless you take risks!” Apparently, Mr. Johnson wasn’t joking! Years later, Johnson & Johnson remains one of the largest multi-national manufacturers of pharmaceutical, diagnostic, therapeutic, surgical, personal hygiene, baby and biotechnology products.
The baby that came into the world through the scenario above was named Ishmael. According to Islamic belief, it was Ishmael that was offered as a sacrifice by Abraham, and through him that they became the rightful inheritors of the promises of God. In other words, Ishmael was the seed through which Islam was born. Hmmm.
In her book, Let Me Be a Woman, Elizabeth Elliot records the story of a friend who had great difficulty accepting the looks God had given her. While everyone this girl knew had grown beautiful golden hair, hers was black. And while they were all still growing, she had stopped. She grew to be only about four feet ten inches tall.
“A young man enlisted, and was sent to his regiment. The first night he was in the barracks with about fifteen other young men, who passed the time playing cards and gambling. Before retiring, he fell on his knees and prayed, and they began to curse him and jeer at him and throw boots at him. So it went on the next night and the next, and finally the young man went and told the chaplain what had taken place, and asked what he should do. ‘Well,’ said the chaplain, ‘you are not at home now, and the other men have just as much right to the barracks as you have. It makes them mad to hear you pray, and the Lord will hear you just as well if you say your prayers in bed and don’t provoke them.’
A United States Army officer who trained pupils at Fort Sill for over 20 years once described the different qualities of the students during the two decades of his tenure. During the 1950’s, he observed the students’ attitude as being so lax that the instructors had trouble keeping their students awake during their lectures. This drastically changed in the mid 1960’s. The students began taking meticulous notes and absorbing every word of instruction. So, what changed?
As we continue to celebrate the God-ordained Feast of Tabernacles — this is a prophetic feast, and one which will be kept by all the people of the world in the coming age. In resurrected bodies, we will be celebrating this feast, year to year in Jerusalem during the millennial reign of Yeshua (Jesus)! Can you imagine it — celebrating with the King of Kings! If that’s not something to anticipate, I’m not sure what is!
The Lord is quoted in this scripture in Matthew. It contains an important principle which believers sometimes tend to overlook. Many believe and even teach that if you’re blessed, your life will be filled with material prosperity, and that if you are undergoing extreme trial, it must be because you have sinned or that you lack faith. The Lord says that the sun rises and the rain falls on both the righteous and the unrighteous alike.