Now hope does not disappoint us, because the love of God is pouring through our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Romans 5:5
We often think of hope as something we want, but we can’t be sure what will really happen. We say, “I hope I will get a new car.” “I hope I’ll be healed of this disease.” “I hope everything works out well in 2018.”
But “hope” in today’s verse is a confident and active expectation of God’s goodness. God gives us a confident expectation of His good in our lives because as His child, He favors each of us. Because Jesus is in you and me, the hope of glory (Col 1:27), we can expect the glory of God to shine into every area of our experiences in life. This includes all the things we ‘hope’ for: our families, our jobs, our ministries, our health and our finances, to name a few.
Today’s verse assures us, “hope does not disappoint us”—we’ll find fulfilment and blessing—“because the love of God is pouring through our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” We may have experienced disappointment in our lives—our hopes dashed and left unfulfilled—but there is a hope that does not disappoint when we are conscious of how much God loves us. It is a hope that springs from the heart of God, who loves each of us individually very much.
Many people think that the Holy Spirit has come to just instruct us…or just to comfort us…or just to give us supernatural power. Each of those things are true. But if we’re to go anywhere in those areas, it’s critical that we understand that the Holy Spirit has come to do all these things through love; because God is Love.
We may be facing a huge disappointment. But if we can say, “Jesus loves me,” we give power to hope. OK, this didn’t go as I wanted it to, but I believe that God is bigger than this setback and He will act on my behalf. The power of believing in and receiving God’s love is that potent.
That’s because when we believe that God loves us, we have the active expectation of His good happening in our experience, in our lives. We have a hope that doesn’t disappoint.