Romans 12:12 & 15:13 – Hope

Rejoice in hope, stand your ground in the face of trouble, be devoted to prayer (Romans 12:12).
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you might have abundant hope through the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13).

Jody listed these two verses as a starting point for discussing hope. I’m tempted to wander for some time in the immediate context of these verses, but these posts are not supposed to be complete homilies.

But my mind does wander a bit through various passages, and these reminded me of the end of 1 Corinthians 13, where we have the trio “faith, hope, and love” with the greatest being love. This greatest is not directly mentioned in either of the verses cited above, but you won’t have to look far in the context to find it.

Now let me tell you that hope isn’t my greatest subject. I’m a realist. I like to know how things really are. I move forward by putting one foot ahead of another, and generally looking most closely at that next step. I’m good with what Jesus had to say, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof!” (Matthew 6:34b). (Note that if you look at the context there, Jesus isn’t talking about hope or lack of hope, but rather about worrying, which he declares useless.)

I, on the other hand, am very much convinced that every day has its full quota of annoyance. I’m much more likely to preach about duty than about hope. Why get up in the morning? Is it because things are going to be great and I’m going to enjoy them? No, it’s because that’s what I do. That’s what I should do.

There’s a call here to realists, well, at least my version of realist. And that is to live in the light of hope. This hope comes in two different parts, at least.

The first is simply the hope of eternity. This life, no matter what it brings, is temporary, and my life is eternal in Christ. That is great news. It is a hope that draws me forward from within the fog of my natural pessimism.

But that hope seems very far away most of the time. There are mountaintop experiences when I can feel the grass of heaven’s feels under my feet and hands, and I can sense that glory, limited by my feeble vision. Those moments are good. But they are moments only.

The other kind of hope is that God is with you now. You sense that in Romans 15:13, which speaks of a hope that brings joy as we believe. That this hope is present and not just future is emphasized in Romans 12:12, with three commands together. “Rejoice in hope, stand your ground in trouble, and be devoted to prayer.” Those are all present activities, not things we await in the kingdom.

And the fact that we are to stand firm in trouble or tribulation suggests that rejoicing in hope is not limited to those times when we are on the mountaintop or otherwise feeling good. Rejoicing in hope is a daily activity that goes right along with the annoyances of daily life. We rejoice, we struggle, we pray, we stand firm. Hope is part of all of these things.

Paul, we should remember, was no stranger to trouble. He was afflicted on a pretty regular basis. And yet he said to rejoice in hope. Now and in the future.

Put some prayer and hope into the troubles of your day today!

(Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)