Romans 15:13 AMPC
May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may continually, always, abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.
I absolutely love this verse. It reminds me that the God of love has a prevailing disposition, and it is one of hope. Let me call your attention to the powerful things that the God of hope desires for us. He wants to fill us with all joy and peace. He doesn’t want to just touch us with a little bit of joy and peace. He wants to absolutely fill us up with ALL joy and peace so that we may every minute of every day abound in an overflow of hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Those are some remarkable promises, especially in this time of much uncertainty in the natural.
Is that your experience? Are you being filled with all joy and peace, overflowing with an excess of hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. This isn’t something you can muster up by your own strength. It’s from the power of the Holy Spirit, and therefore it is supernatural and miraculous. Again, is this your experience even as you read this devotional. It is the normal Christian life. It is not some super deluxe model for a select few.
Let me show you a very important key to all of this. Paul prayed that the God of hope would fill all of us with all joy and peace IN BELIEVING. I would suggest this; If you are not experiencing supernaturally (therefore, it’s got nothing to do with circumstances and culture) all joy and peace, overflowing with joy, it is because you are not believing something right. We have the mind of Christ because we are in union with Him, and therefore it is imperative that we believe what He believes about every situation. If abounding hope and being filled with all peace and joy is not your experience then ask him what you are believing that’s contrary to what He is believing, because if you are believing the right thing, then dismay, cynicism, fear, depression, chronic suspicion, anger, etc. won’t characterize your disposition. If we are seeing reality through the eyes of the God of hope, then His peace, joy, and boundless hope will be your interior reality. If what you’re believing, doesn’t result in that then you’re listening to the devil.