Gas in Your Tank

 

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

—Romans 15:13

We all need a “fill-up” with hope from time to time. The “Enemy of Despair and Hopelessness” can bring us down and ruin any day, relationship, job, church, or project. Hope keeps us going. Hope fuels our way, even through difficult times.

Joni Eareckson Tada says:

It’s amazing how far we can go on a little bit of hope. Hope means “I know I can make it!” ¹

We have a God of hope according to the verse at the beginning of this blog post. We must trust Him to keep us going, to assure us of His presence and His good plan. In the book of Lamentations, chapter three, Jeremiah confesses:

My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.

Notice the past-tense of this sentence. Just three verses later, he says:

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness…The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him.

When we hope for things from God, He doesn’t always come through as we would desire. But, when we hope in God, He shows up to lift us up.

When Jeremiah looked at his circumstances, he saw nothing promising. Yet, when he looked at his God, he could rejoice.

Take a long look at our God. He has the answers we need and has promised to never leave us or forsake us. Let’s ask Him to refuel our drooping spirits. Then rejoice with the hymn writer:

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

His oath, his covenant, his blood
support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay.

On Christ the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.” ²

______________________

1 Tada, Joni Eareckson. Pearls of Great Price. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, ©2006, Devotional for September 30th. 2 Mote, Edward, My Hope is Built on Nothing Less. Public Domain.