This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we already possess what we have asked of Him. (1 Jn 5:14)

Hope, peace, and joy are only a few of the promises of God to every believer. His promises are both universal and unique – That means He has promises that apply to all believers and He has promises that apply only to me or to you, individually. Either way, it is in these promises that we walk out our Christian journey.

But it’s important to understand that God’s promises are not always inevitable – We may or may not experience all that God has promised us. Yes, God always keeps His promises. But often, whether or not we experience the fulfillment of one or more of His promises depends on whether we receive it and act on it. God’s promises are more like an invitation that He wants us to agree to join Him in.

So God has given each one of us an invitation, but we still need to RSVP. For example, He promises us, “Open your mouth and I will fulfill it. And you will see. The words that you speak, so shall it be.” (Ps 81:10) Now, that’s a promise. He’ll give us what He wants us to say, and He’ll back up the Words He puts in our mouths. But it depends on whether our “mouths” – our appetites for Him – are open to receive how much of that promise we will experience in our lives.

The point is, when it comes to God’s promises to us, we’re not passive in receiving His promises. We are co-laborers with Him. He is the King and we are the bride and we are called to actively walk out the faith that He provides us and by that faith to walk in the promises He has made.

So when it comes to things like peace, joy, and hope, that we’ve been talking about over the past weeks, God is calling each of us to walk out the joy and peace He promises and walk in the hope He gives us. We take possession of each promise.

Walking in peace, joy, and hope is not just some blurry thing we wish would come to pass. Like everything else in our lives, it has to be based on faith. If we wait for circumstances to provide our peace or our joy and hope, then circumstances can also take them away.

And the peace that God promises is not that fragile. His Hope is a solid foundation, and His joy is immeasurable. We know God has promised them to us, so we receive them by faith… and then circumstances will have no control over whether we receive God’s promises or not… we receive them by faith.

This isn’t some optimism trip where we put on our rose-colored glasses and pretend that all is right with the world. It’s not some wishful thinking mind over matter self-manipulation, or the power of positive thinking. It is actually God-given, faith-filled activation in the Holy Spirit, where we are aggressively receiving what God has already decreed that He wants to give us.