“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).
I don’t know about you, but joy and peace sometimes seem out of my reach.
Stress, anxiety, fear, and worry hold me back, and I feel anything but joyful and peaceful. I feel empty and restless or sad and anxious.
So often, I feel like joy and peace are conditional, based on what’s happening in my life. If things are going well, I can be filled with joy and peace. But if trouble and adversity darken my doorstep . . . such light and happy emotions are overshadowed and hidden from view.
To an extent, joy and peace are conditional. But not based on what’s happening in our lives. Rather, our joy and peace are based on who’s in our lives—namely, the God of hope. He gives us joy and peace despite our present circumstances because we have joy and peace with him.
How does God fill us with all joy and peace?
Through his Word and sacraments, God turns us away from fearfully fixating on our earthly problems and focuses our attention on what he has done about our far greater spiritual problems. He directs our attention to our Savior Jesus and reminds us of the sure and certain hope we have in him and because of him.
Through his perfect life for us, his sacrificial death on the cross in our place, and his triumphant resurrection from the grave, Jesus gives us peace and joy that cannot be taken away—not by what’s happening in our lives; not by anything in this sin-darkened world.
Does that mean we must always be joyful and at peace as Christians?
Of course not. We experience a wide array of emotions as human beings. Sometimes we laugh; other times we cry. We feel peace and unrest; joy and sadness. But the peace and joy that Jesus gives us are not grounded in emotions or experiences. They’re present even amid unrest and sadness. They exist beyond such fleeting, temporary things.
We always have joy because all of our sins have been forgiven, and we always have peace with God in a relationship restored by our Redeemer. More than that, there’s a home in heaven waiting for us, won by our Savior, that we can look forward to.
Jesus gives us joy and peace that fill us up as we trust in him and what he has done for us. Why? So that we may overflow with hope that is given to us by the Holy Spirit—empowering us to stand and look to our Savior with all joy and peace, despite our present circumstances. No, joy and peace from Jesus cannot be contained within us. They’re seen and shared with others.
Dear Christian, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and share that sure and certain hope with others.
Paul’s letter to the Romans contains many beautiful expressions of faith and wonderfully presents God’s grace to sinners. To gain more insight into and grow in appreciation for Romans, check out Armin J. Panning’s excellent commentary on Romans from The People’s Bible® series.
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Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House. He has his Master of Divinity degree from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary and enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation.
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