By Brother Brian Shimer

I watched in shock as the cup of hot water poured over my laptop’s keyboard. Computers don’t like water any more than the Wicked Witch of the West. Like her, they melt. (I have it on good authority, they react the same to sweet tea and coffee!) I shut the computer down, of course, to dry it out. But the silly thing kept rebooting. In the end, it died, but not quite as dramatically as the Wicked Witch.

Hope cannot be melted or washed from our lives as easily as that according to Romans 5.  

We rejoice in the hard things (the sufferings) we encounter: suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character and character produces hope.  

Paul wrote: Hope will not disappoint. Said again, it will not “put us to shame.” Hope comes from heaven not earth. Hope is not born of wishful thinking. It is not a hyped-up possibility. It is not imaginary. Not at all.

Hope is a posture: God can EVEN work with this.  

Hope is a shining light: Go wash in the pool (called Sent).

Hope is confidence: Nothing is impossible with God.

Hope is conviction: Yet in my flesh, I will see God.

Hope is certain: Faith is the evidence of things hoped for…

Paul wrote this: “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5, NIV).

Don’t you love Paul’s language, there?

Holy Spirit floods our hearts with God’s love, and this is why hope cannot disappoint. God’s love flows over and through me and you. 

I sat across from my 25-year-old client while he sobbed for some 20 minutes. He couldn’t speak so

I waited. He had asked God a question and received an answer. Finally, he said, “It can’t be true that He loves me.” Then, he kept sobbing.

God loved him. It’s amazing how big this truth became. Hope descended upon this man. He couldn’t stop smiling.  

May the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him. May you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)