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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)

With the snow melting and the temperature rising bit by bit, many hearts are filling with hope. As bird song wakes us in the morning and hibernators emerge from their hide-aways, its easier to find joy in life. As the trickle of COVID vaccines making their way across the country becomes more of stream, we look forward to seeing faces again.

These things are all good, and we do well to walk with a lighter step.

Our text for today, reminds us that our true hope has a different origin. In his letter to the Romans, the apostle has written some heavy theology, of deep hope that his own people will turn to Christ, and a primer on Christian ethics. As he winds down his manuscript, he offers his readers a blessing: 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.

None of the congregations this apostle wrote to, had an easy time of it. Being a Christian community in the Roman empire was to swim against the current. Paul wrote to encourage the follows of Jesus to keep rowing.

Today, we are often told to look inside ourselves, to find the grit to keep slogging it out. But Paul doesn’t do that. Instead, he points upward and writes, “May the God of hope fill you…” The capacity to keep on living the Christian life when all seems against us, comes not from within but from God himself.

What does God give? “Joy and peace.” Pause and reflect on that. Remember that Jesus calls us to pray for ‘God’s kingdom to come.’ In Romans 14 Paul says, “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit…”

If we are citizens of God’s kingdom, then God desires to fill us with ‘joy and peace’. We are called to be full of joy and people of peace in a world where it is seldom seen. We bring it. What a beautiful image.

But for us to be such people, we need to trust him. To believe that Christ did come to establish God’s kingdom, not with ‘swords loud clashing’ or ‘fighter jets screaming’ but with small acts of service and sacrifice. Trusting in God means that we believe that Christ’s death on the cross was not in vain. Rather, that his resurrection from death means that he has conquered the kingdoms of evil. They will not last. Christ is king and eventually all peoples while acknowledge him as Lord.

Hope is a gift of the Holy Spirit which comes because of our trust in our Heavenly Father. Hope of course always looks to the future. Paul is looking forward to the time when Israel and the Gentiles will be united in the kingdom, to the culmination of history with Christ’s return and beyond to the glory of the new universe which Jews and Gentiles will together inherit.

Joy, peace, faith and hope are essential Christian qualities. If faith is the means to joy and peace, overflowing hope is their consequence, and all are due to the power of the Holy Spirit within us.

The joy and peace we download from our God of hope will enable "us to overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” It will sustain us, and we'll have enough to give away to others. Because of Him, there will always be a spring. Because of Him we can make it through the darkest days of winter in our lives. When all you see is winter, look up. Let God fill you with hope.