This Day in History: 0000-10-02

October 2 – Romans 15:13

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him.  Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is my prayer for all of us today.  What lies in front of you that has the potential to rob you of your joy and peace?  I don’t know about you, but for me, when that happens; when I find myself feeling restless and woeful, it can almost certainly be traced back to a lack of faith.

I’m not just talking about being sad.  Terrible things happen sometimes, and we are going to be sad.  Jesus was sad many times while He was on earth.  He wept at the tomb of His friend Lazarus and again when looking out over Jerusalem and mourning his people’s rejection.  Sad is okay. I’m talking about the kind of discouragement that results in an overwhelming disquiet in our souls.

But, the Bible tells us when we face trials it should bring us joy because it gives us an opportunity to grow our endurance and to learn to further trust our Savior.

Let’s join together today and ask God – the source of our hope to help us trust Him completely.  Let’s put that struggle that’s stealing our joy; the trial that’s robbing our peace at the foot of the cross.  Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to fill us all the way up until we’re overflowing with the confident hope that comes from trusting Him.  As we do, let’s look for the fruit that comes from His Spirit and rejoice that He hears and answers as we see love and joy and peace and all the rest flowing out of us.  He is so good!