Hope, Joy, and Peace

April 27, 2021

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 NLT

Hopelessness, sadness, and discontentment are closely connected. Where you find one, you usually find the others. The same is true of their opposite triplets, hope, joy, and peace. Where you find a person with hope, you will also discover a great capacity for joy, and then joyful, hopeful people live in peace.

Paul, writer to the Romans, loved the recipients so much that he was determined they would live with the right triplets in their lives. He prayed a prayer for them that we can pray for ourselves and those we love. He acknowledges at the very beginning that God Himself is the source of hope. Anything outside of Him is simply a wish. This hope that comes from God is what keeps us going because it is the foundation of God’s perfect love and promises.

We pray to the God of all hope and ask Him to completely fill us or our loved ones with joy and peace. Then we actively pursue our part. Paul tells us that this all happens “as we trust in Him.”

Trust is a matter of choice. We all put our trust somewhere. We trust in ourselves, money, career or job, education, health, or people. All of those can and will let us down. It doesn’t mean that the people or things we put our trust in are evil or uncaring. It may simply mean they can’t carry the load of our needs and expectations. Like a child’s folding chair built for 75 pounds or less can’t handle an adult of 135 pounds, they fold under the weight. We are hurt and disappointed, and so are they.

The only One built and equipped to handle the level of trust we need to have hope, joy, and peace is God. We must choose to put our trust fully in Him. As we trust Him, He will fill us completely with joy and peace. Then we have the incredible confident hope provided to us by the Holy Spirit! It’s not a small hope—it is overflowing hope! Overflowing hope leads to consistent joy and peace, and it all begins with the choice to trust God completely.

  • Who besides you needs Paul’s prayer? Put them on your regular prayer list.
  • How are you doing with the triplets in your life? Where do you need to “overflow with hope”? Talk to God about it. Hope, joy, and peace are His desire for you.