Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!

Romans 15:13 The Message

Beloved, how are you experiencing (or perhaps noticing that you aren't experiencing) hope and joy these days?

This is not a call to chastise yourself, invite worry, or even a request to take a deep dive into introspection. No, this is simply the practice of nonjudgmental curiosity.

It seems like an unusual question when the world appears to be on fire, but when we look at the world Paul found himself in when he wrote these words... it wasn't a peaceful season for humanity then either.

Wars, conquering nations, oppressed people groups, the sick and the poor treated as outcasts, crippling taxation...for some, the world did not look like a place brimming with hope and peace. Yet Paul seems to believe that being filled with joy and peace so that you brim with hope is possible. How?

Perhaps you are in a challenging personal season, and you are wondering the same thing. Seriously, how?

In one of the most challenging seasons of my life, I wondered the same thing.

During that season, I struggled with unresolved grief, over-the-top responsibility (you know, the kind where we believe we are responsible for everyone and everything...?), and a lack of secure attachment to God as my Abba (Daddy God). I was anxious and fearful, and felt like I was losing my sense of self. I was not sure how I would ever have peace, or joy, or hope again.

But God...

I love that phrase! But God. This wonderful intervention. And that seems to be the How Paul is highlighting to us!

"Now may God, the fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with his super-abundance until you radiate with hope!"

Romans 15:13 The Message

Abba, our Papa God, is the God of green hope, the fountain of hope, Who fills us. The Holy Spirit, our Comforter, fills us with life-giving energy and surrounds us continually with His super-abundance. Notice - this has nothing to do with us achieving, working, trying really hard...my over-the-top responsibility was not going to serve me, nor does it depend on the world to get itself together. Nope, we are filled and surrounded...until we radiate with hope!

Personally, Abba began gently teaching me to securely attach to Him (that will be a story for another time). Over time, I began to see Him as my hope and joy.

He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace near the quiet brook of bliss. That’s where he restores and revives my life.

Psalm 23:2-3a The Passion

I practiced meditating on the Perfect Love of God using excerpts from Psalm 23. It was a few months in when I realized that when I thought of the oasis of peace Abba takes me to...it was Him. He is my oasis of peace. It is here that He restores and revives my life; it was (and still is) here that peace, joy, and hope began to fill my life again.

The God of green hope, the fountain of hope itself, surrounding me with His life-giving, energizing, super-abundance...He Loved Me Back To Life!

May you be gracious with yourself as you practice nonjudgemental curiosity.

May you yield to Abba, Jesus, and Holy Spirit filling you with their joy, peace, hope, and love!

May you experience Him Loving You Back To Life!

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear (10 Minutes) - FREE

Grace & Shalom,