Reading: “The God of hope.” —Romans 15:13

Matthew Henry once said, “It is good in prayer to fasten upon those names, titles and attributes of God which are most suitable to the errand we come upon and will best serve to encouragement concerning it.” God is called “the God of hope” because He is the author of all the well-grounded hope of His people. All hope of which He is not the author is false and delusive. The world in general may have hope, but it is false hope. All true hope with respect to divine favor is effected in the human heart by God Himself.

The expression “the God of hope” had a peculiar suitability to the Gentiles. Consider this title in light of Ephesians 2:12 where Paul is speaking to the Gentiles before their conversion. He says, “At that time ye were without Christ, … and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”

If God had never revealed Himself to the Gentiles, they would have been eternally without hope. But in mercy God gave to the Gentiles a word of hope, and Paul recognized through God’s Word there was hope and that “we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”

The scriptures are windows of hope. Every divine promise is calculated to inspire the believer with hope. If God is both the author of hope and the object of hope, if His Word is the means of conveying that hope, then we must never be hopeless.

Have you lost hope? Are you struggling with feelings of hopelessness? When Paul prayed, he prayed to the God of hope. We have the same privilege through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“Do not look to your hope, but to Christ, the source of your hope.” C. H. Spurgeon