A Verse of Hope #verse2014

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.                                                                                                    ~ Romans 15:13

 This verse is such a blessing to me.  It goes right along with my one word for the year - hope.  For the matter of brevity, I will break it down into five clauses to think upon.

1. God of hope -  Hope comes from God, it is of God.  We do not generate hope for ourselves

2. fill you with all joy and peace - The emphasis is on the ALL ,   we have access to the greatest amount of joy and peace - totality--complete joy... complete peace....

3. trust in him - Our access to this complete joy and peace is directly related to our trust in God.  The more I let go of my anxious thoughts and worries and trust in my loving and sovereign God , the more I will experience true full joy and peace regardless of my circumstances.

4. overflow with hope - Not only do I receive joy and peace as I surrender my will to God and trust in him wholly, but I will also receive hope.  In fact, my cup runneth over with hope!   Joy , peace and hope must be related.

5. by the power of the Holy Spirit - Joy, peace, and hope are not things I can attain on my own.  They are given to me by the Holy Spirit of God.

My God is Hopeful. My God is Peaceful.  My God is Joyful. My God is Powerful.  And my God loves me and fills me with his hope, his peace, his joy, and his power sustains me as I trust in Him more and more.

Personalizing the verse and saying it aloud is helpful to me.

May the God of hope fill Mary with all joy and peace as Mary trusts in him, so that Mary may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.   

I will focus on this verse throughout the year in combination with my word hope.

Lord, you are my God of hope. Thank you for being so generous with me. Help me to trust you completely with every part of my life, so that you can fill me to overflowing with your Holy Spirit and I might have all joy and all peace and your hope.

Do you have a verse that you can focus on this year? 

One Word 2014

Hope 
*  to want something to happen or be true and think that it could happen (verb)
* Someone or something that can provide help or give you a reason for hoping (noun)

My one word this year is HOPE.
This will be the word that I focus on this year to guide me and change me in lieu of resolutions.

 I began praying about which word I should choose a few weeks ago and this word kept showing up in many ways.  HOPE is a difficult word to define and I tried to give it more time and pray more specifically thinking maybe I was wrong and God had another word for me-- but HOPE continues to seek me out in my devotional time, in songs I sing, in books I read, in messages I hear and other ways.  I can't ignore it anymore.  HOPE it is.

 I will do a study on HOPE --have already started gathering verses on hope and am amazed. I will hopefully blog about what I learn here throughout the year and how I let HOPE direct me and influence me throughout 2014.

My Bible verse to accompany  my one word is Romans 15:13

     May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, 
     so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. 


If you are not familiar with this idea you can learn about it at #oneword365 or similarly at #myoneword based on Mike Ashcroft & Rachel Olsen's book My One Word.  Youversion, the Bible app is promoting a #verse2014  to focus on for the year.  All these can be tweeted, facebooked, instagrammed, or shared on other social media sites.


What about you?  Have you one word or a verse you will keep in front of you in 2014 ?
Leave me a comment and let me know your word or verse!