Hope Does Not Disappoint

♦ July 25, 2025 ♦ Leave a comment


 

(NRSV) Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

 

I just read the first five chapters of Romans and am reminded once again of God’s great love for us. Paul says in Romans 5:8 that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He did not wait for us to recognize our need for a savior, for how could we? Those dead in their sins do not have the eyes to see nor the ears to hear. But when Christ enters our hearts, everything changes!  Suddenly the hope of salvation is ours.

 

I was once chastised for speaking of hope.  The person with whom I was talking said if I had faith I would not need hope. I am so thankful that one does not preclude the other.

 

There are times when our faith grows weak, and it is then we must cling to the hope of our salvation. What is that hope? That we will live eternally with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And that is the hope that does not fail.

 

I would close today with a poem I wrote not long after my first heart attack. May we never abandon our hope, even as we embrace our faith.

 

HOPE

 

Hope drifts in on angel’s wings, barely

disturbing the air, the room, we 

hardly know it’s there.

Yet, it arrives, unhurried, but

not unwanted.  

We see it in the

face of a friend, the

trace of a smile, or simply

a kind word. 

It is the promise

of good things to come, the 

assurance that we are not alone.  It is

what gets us through another day

when we think we cannot go on.

 

2008 Carol J. Grace All Rights Reserved

 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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