Hope is crucial in the life of the Kingsman. In Romans 15:13, Paul is keen for the church in Rome to experience this kind of hope as he blesses them:
May the God of hope fill you with all peace and joy in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)
What God Gives Us to Abound in Hope
If you go to Scotland, it will rain. (Not because you went, it’s what Scotland does. Unless, of course, you have that condition that wherever you go it has to rain, in which case, may God have mercy on you as well as consider getting in the umbrella business.)
Confident expectation. This is the quality that allows you to be active in that excitement and what will come. It’s that excitement the child has before their birthday when they’ve made their request of what they want and trust their parents to come through for them. It’s not about anxiety or concern if it will happen; it’s the assurance that is eager in anticipation of receiving it. This quality is not always evident or prominent in our society and our upbringing. This is why a lot is seen in the wisdom and caution of the contingency measure. There’s a lot given to the notion that you look for the best and prepare for the worst. You prepare yourself not to be disappointed in case it doesn’t happen. This is the word we’re taught to cultivate.
This is reasonable for sure, but it’s not an expression of confident expectation. Confident expectation is taking your umbrella to Scotland with you, knowing that if it doesn’t rain, then you’d question if you were really in Scotland. Confident expectation is the attitude that the professional sportsperson takes to their sport of choice, which sees them looking forward to the win before it happens. It’s a state of mind. That state of mind then governs your attitude and posture.
God expects you to have great expectations of Him. That’s why He’s the God of hope. And in Jesus Christ, we have a Living Hope. We know He lives, we experience Him in our gatherings, but we know He isn’t here yet. We know that because things will be very different when He is here. Yet, we know He’s coming. He has said so. That means we live in anticipation of that return. We’re keen to do what He commands. We’re eager to follow His lead. We know He’s coming. The hope we have has no contingencies. We treat the coming of Jesus as more inevitable than the rain in Scotland or the day following the night.
And those who have that hope in Him purify themselves as He is pure. (1 John 3:3)
One day we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. That base is the reason why we pursue purity, and that purity is defined by God Himself. That’s purity of heart and mind in sole devotion to God. That purity is to operate as Jesus operated on earth, where all we do is what we see the Father doing and all we say is what we hear the Father saying. That’s not perfect all the time for sure – but that’s the whole point of purifying. It’s a process. It’s a commitment to the path to becoming more and more like Him. That commitment to the process is based on and motivated by the confident expectation we have that our Lord Jesus shall return.
Note what the God of hope gives us – all peace and joy in believing. Believing what? Believing God. Believing the gospel of Jesus Christ. The kind of belief that sees what God has done in Christ and then seeks to keep on believing in the present because of that which will happen. No wonder we receive from God all peace and joy.
We have peace as we focus on God – we know He has promised perfect peace to those who keep their minds on Him. Jesus reiterates the promise that the type of peace He gives is not what is available in the world. This peace is not the kind of temporary, blissful feeling. Peace is not primarily a feeling. Peace is a relationship with the source of it. Peace is a wholeness and rest in God that trusts Him for His faithful covenant love to us. Peace is the harmonious functioning of all things in line with how God has designed things. We get to experience that as God gives it to us generously. So where others operate in highly stressed and anxious states, we can swap that out for what we see in God – the one who loves and cares for us amazingly.
As if that isn’t enough, He gives us joy. This extraordinary quality is far more than the emotion of gladness, though it’s often expressed with that. This joy is an inner delight and brightness of spirit that takes every opportunity to praise and worship. The two concepts are inextricably attached because the source of the joy is the source of the praise and worship. That doesn’t mean that those who experience joy have to burst out singing whatever they remember was sung on Sunday. Praise and worship are a lot more than what we sing. The joy is such a strong inner delight in God that it’s as though it takes a trigger to emit sounds of God’s goodness, greatness, kindness, beauty, holiness, righteousness, and might, as a starting point for what lifts us within. That kind of inner quality is definitely challenged in trying circumstances, but this is why we’re particularly filled with it as we endure those times. We can have the gritted teeth and still have the joy, because in those moments we can reset ourselves in the truth of the God of hope who is right there with us, telling us that we have a confident expectation that is so much greater than the current circumstance that we might as well praise Him. We might as well point things back to Him and see it from where He rules and reigns. This unspeakable joy that’s full of glory is at our disposal because of the generosity of God, who knows we need it at all times.
At this point, we should be very enthusiastic about what God offers to us, but Paul isn’t quite done with how we abound in hope, because He then goes on to say that what fills us is reinforced by the power of the Holy Spirit. Wowsers. Now, check this. We get the peace and joy, and that’s awesome; we’re filled with the good stuff right there. Now, as well as that, we are blessed with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. The. Same. Power. That. Raised. Jesus. From. The. Dead. The same power that looked at death, which apparently defeats everyone, said, “Nope,” and went ahead and defeated it. That same power. Is given. To enable us. To abound in hope. God is good. God is so good. Look at that. He wants us to abound in hope, and so He sets us up with everything we need for that, and by everything we need, there is no one with sense who looks at what God offers and suggests that He’s missed something. We are abundantly blessed to abound in hope.
Why does Paul offer that blessing? What does it say to all when we abound in hope? When we consider the hope we have, the wonder of the gospel of Jesus Christ that saves Jew and Gentile, the gospel we’re not ashamed of because it’s God’s power of salvation, we have good news to share. The good news is that He has saved us, is saving us and will save us at the return of the glorious Son, as long as we remain full of this hope that leads us to be assured of that coming, even more than the rain in Scotland. And that’s great assurance.
Such is the role hope takes in the life of the Kingsman.
For His Name’s Sake
C. L. J. Dryden
Shalom
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