Romans 15:13 NIV 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 JBP May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in your faith, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, your whole life and outlook may be radiant with hope.
Romans 15:13 MSG Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!
Romans 15:13 AMP May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.
Observation
I first found this verse when I was in a hospital ICU waiting room in 1984. Our 15-year-old daughter had been in a serious car accident. One of her spinal vertebrates was crushed. The prognosis was “best case” that she would have serious organ and nerve damage causing her to never walk again. The “worst case” was she would be quadriplegic. There was no way for the doctors at the beginning of this journey to predict what other organ or soft tissue damage might be revealed later related to the accident. We just had to wait and see. Also, at the time, we were self-employed in the fishing industry. We had no health insurance because it was prohibitively expensive (both because of our industry and self-employment). We were facing months in the hospital. We had every human reason to feel hopeless and helpless. We needed nothing less than a multi-faceted miracle.
Both my husband and I had grown up in church. However, our understanding of God was that His holiness created a great chasm that kept Him distant, aloof and disappointed in our human weaknesses. Thankfully, we had embraced a personal relationship with Jesus just one year prior to this event. The only carrying-sized Bible I owned was an Amplified version. I liked this version because I was new to reading Scripture and the Amplified version gave me more insight into the shades of meaning in the original words, something other translations didn’t provide. While sitting in that ICU waiting room, I was particularly interested in what God had to say about hope – something in such very short supply – so I was arrested by this verse. How could my hope “abound and be overflowing (bubbling over)” in that hospital ICU?
Impact on Me
The idea of an approachable God was totally new to me. I grew up knowing that God was holy, all powerful and untouchable – a good God, but inaccessible, not involved personally or intimately with my life. I knew that Jesus had died for our sins, but had no sense of being individually forgiven or His eyes on me as His beloved. I began to hope against hope that this verse was true – that God cared about me, would hear me, would respond to my need, would forgive and overcome my weakness, would even be miraculous in this circumstance. I was not brave, courageous, wise or full of faith; I was desperate, with nowhere else to turn. Yet in that moment, our gracious, loving, amazing God filled me with His hope and proceeded to provide miraculously for us. I found that “desperate, with nowhere else to turn” was my best place to be because it opened the floodgates of Heaven to fill my emptiness with hope and faith. Yes, we did get a miracle or two – physical and financial.
In this experience I learned that God does not want OR need me to be seasoned or perfect in faith, obedience, motive or “strong” enough to figure out how to fix it, overcome in my own strength. work it out on my own, or help Him by coming up with my own plan in place of His. He simply asks me ALWAYS to need Him, to turn to and seek Him, to rely on Him, to listen to and obey Him, to trust Him in all circumstances, to be that living sacrifice of Romans 12:1 knowing that the cost to me will be worth the benefit to Him, His kingdom and, ultimately, to me. I demonstrate my gratitude by believing, trusting and obeying His word when I am desperate and when I things are going well.
PRAYER
Lord God, You are Holy, majestic, eternal, all-powerful, all-merciful, all-loving, ever faithful. The greatest joy of my life is to know that I am Yours and You are mine, that I am Your beloved. May I trust that You are still working all things together for good when life seems to be chaotic and painful. May I see with the eyes of Jesus, Who saw beyond the pain and suffering of His death to the glory, grace, redemption, salvation, and healing it would unleash. May I always submit all I am and do to You, keeping in sync with Your plans and Your will and purpose for me so that You will be glorified in my life. Give me the courage to choose to say “Yes” and to continue in that “Yes” regardless of personal cost. Make it so, praying all in the name of Jesus.
Pressing On In His Footsteps 