“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope,” (Rom. 15:13, ESV).

God does not merely give His gifts—He fills us with His gifts of joy and peace so that we abound in hope. David described God’s gifts with familiar poetic words, “My cup runneth over.” The Christian life is chiefly one of receiving the gifts that the Holy Spirit bestows to us. Forgiveness, life, and salvation were earned for us through Christ’s atoning death on the cross and His triumphant resurrection. Since Christ has paid the debt for our sin, the Holy Spirit fill us with the joy of Christ’s salvation and the peace of sins forgiven. These gifts mean that we abound in hope.

The Christian life is not a series of steps we follow to earn God’s love, but rather a life filled with God’s overflowing gifts. The Holy Spirit’s work is to fill us with the gifts of God as we hear absolution pronounced and the Gospel proclaimed, and as we are filled with Christ’s body and blood under the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper.

There is nothing silent about the Holy Spirit’s work. Just as at Pentecost, when the Word of God was proclaimed in many different languages, the Spirit continues to fill people with joy and peace.

A wise pastor once preached, “Whenever the Lord gives His gifts, He always give the best, and He always gives them in abundance.” What a joy it is to celebrate the Holy Spirit’s work in our midst, so that we may abound each day in the hope we have in Christ!

Prayer – Almighty, everlasting God, Your Son has assured forgiveness of sins and deliverance from eternal death. Strengthen us by Your Holy Spirit, that our faith in Christ may increase daily and that we may hold fast to the hope that on the Last Day we shall be raised in glory to eternal life; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Fraternally in Christ,

President Lee Hagan