Be Still And Know

Romans 15.13 NLT 'I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.' Hope is a slippery word and so we need to be quite clear what Paul means by it. Normally when we use the word ‘hope’ there is a maybe in our voice. That is to say, we are not confident about something. So when I say that I hope it will be sunny tomorrow, you know that I mean well and would love to think that it might be sunny, but I also realise that it might not. Or if I say that I hope that the train will arrive on time, once again you will know that I’m not absolutely sure that that is what is going to happen. In order to understand Paul’s use of the word hope, we need to get rid of any suggestion of doubt, because he was absolutely confident that the future was secure in God’s hands. His future hope was built on the solid rock of Jesus’ death and resurrection. He doesn’t have any trace of doubt tha