Apostle Paul prayed these words for the believers in Rome at a time when they were being used as entertainment in coliseums against gladiators or lions. One would find it difficult to have joy and peace in those circumstances outside of the provision of the Almighty.
When we trust in God, He provides both joy and peace. That joy and peace manifest themselves in the confident hope that is ours through the presence of the Holy Spirit in us as believers in Jesus.
Confident hope. Expectation. Not a wished-for. Not a dreamed-of. A yet-unseen reality we are confidently expecting.
When is the last time you had a desire you took to God
with a confident expectation that He would act on it?
The spirit of religion has decimated our hope. We have been told that we are to be humble and that expecting anything of God is wrong and prideful, yet His word shows us that is what He expects of us! We have been taught that if our dreams don’t match the boundaries set by humans, they aren’t God-given. God sets His own boundaries, and often stretches us beyond ours.
Believer, this is your permission to dream again. It’s permission for you to look forward to life and all God is doing and will do for you. As you lean on God and live fully connected to Him, your dreams and aspirations will be born of Him. Trust Him to fulfill in you all He has planned. Surrender to His will and see how He does just that.
Walk confidently in the truth that God’s reality for you may not be visible right now, but it will be seen by you and others in His timing.
My friend, I pray that Almighty God, who is the source of all hope, will fill you completely up with the joy and peace you need, simply because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in you!
Trust Him. Align yourself with His Spirit. Surrender. Hope.
Coffee, Bible, Journal.
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Faye Bryant is an author, coach, and speaker who helps individuals escape the lies of the enemy, live into God’s truth, and build a better life by first feeling, dealing, and healing their way through a stuck future or an abused past, toward a deeper path of purpose, and into the unhackable life of their chosen legacy. Hers is a story of resurrection: from death to life!
