Jun P. Espina 4 min read
Updated on February 17th, 2020
A God giving hope is what we need most in this life. But do we have Him in our heart, the God who is there when everything seems to fall apart? Some believe that hope and despair share the same destination. It is not true with regards to the kind of hope that the Holy Bible is teaching.
A God Giving Hope is Filling Our Souls with Joy
Despair is a negative emotion, whereas scriptural the hope is as positive as God Himself. In Romans 15:13, the apostle Paul saw hope as being attached to the Almighty. “May the God of hope,” he said, “fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”
Like faith, hope cannot stand independently. Rather, it is always attached reasonably to Someone Bigger who is our God. For we may abound in hope only by the power of the Holy Spirit. Second, hope does not stand outside of reason.
A God Giving Hope is Supplying Hope with Reason
I hope to live forever, for example, because the Holy Bible tells me so. As I trust in the Holy Bible as the very Word of God, so I become hopeful of my eternal life in heaven, for it is God’s scriptural promise to my soul. My hope is attached to God along with biblical reasons I needed in order to believe it to be true.
Observe Romans 15:4: “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
My God is a God giving hope, and the Holy Bible, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is the reason for the strength and steadfastness of such hope. I know that God’s promises to my soul are real, and one of them is my “hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago.” (cf. Titus 1:2).
A God Giving Hope is Paul’s God
If God is the Owner of hope, who is this God? Who is this God giving hope to the apostle Paul? In Titus 1:1-2, Paul said that he was
There are few words mentioned in these verses that can help answer the question, “Who is this God giving hope to the apostle Paul?” He said that he was “a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ…in the hope of eternal life.” The other significant terms used by Paul were “faith,” “truth,” and “eternal life.” And these were connected to our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Romans 10:17 wrote Paul that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (NASB) And in John 14:6 Christ said that He is “the truth” and in John 10:28 He promised to “give eternal life to them.”
As mentioned earlier, all of these words point to Jesus Christ, the God of the apostle Paul which he clearly stressed in Titus 2:13:
In short, having Jesus Christ in your heart by faith is equivalent to having the God of hope who said in John 10:28: “I will give eternal life to them” who believed in Him. Jesus Christ, therefore, is the apostle Paul’s God giving hope. And Christ is my God the Son, too. Christ is God; He has the power to give me hope and assurance of eternal life.
How to Have the God Giving Hope of Paul?
Jesus Christ is the apostle Paul’s God giving hope to his soul. Thus, if you have Christ in your heart by faith, then you have the God of hope. Observe 1 Timothy 1:1: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and LORD Jesus Christ, which is our hope.” In Colossians 1:27 Christ is described in this verse as the Hope of Glory: “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the Hope of Glory.”
How to have Christ in your heart as your God giving hope? Well, do two things. First, RECEIVE Him; second, BELIEVE in His name.
I heard people say they believed and even got baptized in the name of Christ, but their lives have not been changed. Yes, they are “believers” like the devil, but without the biblical quality of faith that delivers “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” into their heart and soul. (Heb. 11:1) I can easily spot a pseudo-Christian from his or her resemblance with those having no experience with the miracle of the Second Birth.
Call the truly born-again persons as bigots or fanatics or whatever flag you love to ridicule the followers of Jesus Christ. One day—more when natural calamities strike heavily— you will find them keeping their peace with their living Jesus, while you scramble in that one grim corner of your desperation without hope and a God to call your Friend and Father.
