“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost,” Romans 15:13.

This verse highlights just what it is the Christian has a right to. Paul here speaks of fulness of joy and peace. That which the world searches for in vain, through the use of a variety of illegal drugs and that which should be illegal, alcohol, through music and entertainment and false religious expectations and delusions, the Christian may have freely and that to the full.

Consider what the verse says.

I. NOTE THE WONDERFUL TITLE OF GOD

“The God of hope”.

He is elsewhere called “The God of heaven,” Genesis 24:3, “The God of Bethel,” Genesis 31:13, “The God of my salvation,” Psalm 18:46, “The Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort,” 2 Cor 1:3. The list is almost endless.

1. All of these titles indicate the SOURCE of all that we require for our temporal and eternal comfort, joy and security. These things do not come from any earthly source or by man’s efforts and labours.

2. These blessings are however, to be freely obtained from the Lord. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David,” Isaiah 55:1-3.

Those words form the essential offer of free grace.

3. The blessings are offered free to the ‘whosoever’. The apostles were sent out into the world and commanded to make this o ffer to all. “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,” Mark 16:15. Rejectors of the gospel deprive themselves of the full riches of God’s goodness and mercy. Nations that we see today suffering under the yoke of cruel heathen darkness and superstitions are, I believe, nations that once heard and rejected the gospel of Christ. Their distress and hardships are self-imposed!

II. PRAYER IS THE KEY TO OBTAINING THESE BLESSINGS

The words of the text are in the form of a prayer or a petition to God by Paul for the Romans. But we are free to seek in prayer for ourselves such blessings. Indeed, the Lord urges us to freely avail ourselves of His wonderful bounty!

1. God has promised great things to His saved people today but they must be sought for in prayer! That wonderful promise found in Luke 11:9-10 illustrates this. “And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Please note the persistence that the Lord demands of us when praying.

2. God had promised Israel great things in the latter days BUT, again, they will have to pray. “Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it. Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock,” Ezekiel 36:33-37.

3. Such prayer is to be a daily exercise. “Give us this day our daily bread,” Matthew 6:11. Prayer ought to be like our breathing, constant, for by prayer we obtain and enjoy the blessings of God. We starve ourselves when we do not pray or when we pray amiss! “Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts,” James 4:2-3.

Paul says here: “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing”. Faith is an absolute essential element of prayer. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him,” Hebrews 11:6. Please heed these words, dear Christian.

III. IT IS BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST THAT GOD’S BLESSINGS COME TO US

We must ask, but the GIVING is all of God! We can never have God’s blessings without the ministrations of the Holy Ghost.

1. How unconscious we are of the merciful administrations of the Holy Ghost. He works so ‘quietly’ that we so often fail to observe His tender dealings with us. The Ethiopian’s conversion is an example of His kindness to sinners. “Behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot,” Acts 8:27-29. How often a saving word spoken to a poor sinner by a child of God was the result of the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Indeed, I am sure that it is He Who is behind every such word spoken in witness.

2. The Holy Ghost is God and therefore acts with all the power of the Godhead. Do remember that He was there at the creation. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,” Genesis 1:1-2. It is by that self-same power that He conveys to us the blessings of God with similar wondrous results as those seen in the creation.

3. Though His administrations we are caused to ‘abound’. “That ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost”. The word ‘abound’ means to ‘enjoy abundance’. The abundance we may enjoy is embodied in the phrase the Lord used to describe the land to which He was brought His people. “And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey,” Exodus 3:8.

How we rob ourselves, starve ourselves, confine ourselves to the desert, through unbelief, folly and disobedience, when we could be living in and enjoying “a land flowing with milk and honey”.

May the Lord bless His Word to your hearts.