Hope

“And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.” Beautiful words taken from Romans 5:5.

I was thinking, what keeps us going as Christians? Hope is an important factor in our Christian walk. What hope is Romans 5:5 talking about? Romans 5:2 TPT says, “Our faith guarantees us permanent access into this marvelous kindness that has given us a perfect relationship with God. What incredible joy bursts forth within us as we keep on celebrating our hope of experiencing God’s glory!” So the hope referred to in Romans 5:5 is the hope of experiencing God’s glory.

What we need to know, however, is that hope does not fly solo. Hope has to attach itself to something. That something is faith. You can’t have one without the other. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen.” If you have faith with no hope, your faith has no work to do. If you have hope with no faith, your hope has nothing to transport it from being something you long for into reality.

In order for us to run our race well and to finish strong we need to make sure that we are taking in the word of God so we can get godly hopes filling our lives. When our hopes line up with God’s word, are we attach our faith to those things, we know it is only a matter of time before it becomes reality. God wants to bless you. He wants to heal you. Provide for you. Protect you. Fight for you. Show up for you. God is on your team. When we begin to hope to see God at work in our lives and we have faith that He can do it and nothing is impossible for Him, we will see our lives transformed.

You want your faith to start producing in your life? Check your hopes. What are you hoping for. It is easy to have faith that God can do it and have zero hope of seeing it happening in your life. If you want to see something happen in your life, your hope and your faith need to align.

What I like about Romans 5:5 is that it tells us that our hope (one which is attached to faith from verse 2) does not lead to disappointment. I have faced some disappointments in my life. Sometimes because God said no, because what looked good short term wasn’t actually good for me long term. Sometimes because it was the wrong time. Other times because my hope and my faith were misaligned. God is so good that if you will allow your hope and your faith to align even for a second, He’ll get it to you! Whatever it is you are hoping for, if you attach your faith to that, God will work it all out in His timing.

So just because it doesn’t happen when you say, “Amen.” It doesn’t mean it is not going to happen. Keep hope alive by reminding yourself of who your God is. Have it settled in your heart that you are loved by Him. Romans 5:5 links hope with love. There must be something about hope that emanates from a deep belief that one is loved by God. We hold on to hope in the face of difficult circumstances because we have the Holy Spirit filling our hearts with God’s love. Reminding us that we are not alone. Telling us of how God works all things together for our good.

We have God inside of us, pointing us toward Himself where His arms are always stretched wide. Reminding us that we are loved with an everlasting love and that before He formed us He knew us. We are deeply loved and love never gives up. We know this to be true about God’s love. He could have backed away from the cross, but His love never gives up no matter how hard or messed up the situation.

Knowing we are loved allows us to keep our hope in Jesus. Our hope is built on who our God is. When our hope is built on who God is and by faith, we are convinced that we are loved and cared for deeply and there is nothing our God cannot do, we become unstoppable. Faith, hope and love work together. On that note, I’ll leave you with 1 Corinthians, 13:13 which says, “Until then, there are three things that remain: faith, hope, and love—yet love surpasses them all. So above all else, let love be the beautiful prize for which you run.”

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.