THE BOOK OF HOPE

GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS

365 DEVOTIONS FROM OUR DAILY BREAD

THE BOOK OF HOPE

READ:  Romans 5:1-11

Hope does not disappoint.  Romans 5:5

Writing in Texas Co-Op Power magazine, Donna Chapman described the excitement generated on her family’s farm in the 1940’s by the arrival of the Montgomery Ward catalog.  Often called “the wish book,” its pages were filled with images of items ranging from clothing and cookstoves to furniture and tools.  The catalog’s warm, friendly tone seemed to invite people to picture themselves as they lived, worked, and dressed at the time, and as they hoped to become.

The Bible is not a spiritual mail-order catalog, but in its pages we vividly see ourselves both as we are today and as we hope to be.  The Bible certainly is God’s book of hope.

In Romans 5, Paul said that “we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (v. 2), “glory in tribulations” (v. 3), and “rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 11).  Even our present difficulties are an essential part of the process of becoming the people we know God wants us to be.

The Bible is far more than a book of wishful thinking:  it is a book of well-founded confidence in God’s purpose and plan for us as believers.  Whatever we are like today, we know that in Christ we have a living hope, and it will not end in disappointment.  DCM

A strong defense to guard the soul

Is ours from heaven above;

God fills our hearts with steadfast hope

And gives us faith and love. -DJD

No one is hopeless whose hope is in God’s Word.