Joy and Peace
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him (Romans 15:13a.)
With this blessing, Paul ends the main body of his letter. From here on, he is dealing with personal matters between himself and the members of the church in Rome.
In this verse, the apostle reveals a vital spiritual principle. God can fill you with all joy and all peace.
If you need more joy and peace in your life, the way to receive these blessings is to trust more in God. The beautiful thing about this promise is that there is no limit to the joy and the peace with which God will fill your life. That’s why the apostle says that God will fill you with all joy and peace.
There will be no limits to our growth in joy and peace, not even death.
This will be a constant growth as we learn to trust in Jesus more and more in our lives. There will be no limits to our growth in joy and peace, not even death. We will grow to love Jesus more and more throughout eternity, and so too will our joy and peace increase forever!
In the context of Paul’s preceding argument, we might paraphrase his message here as being that our hope is grounded in God’s faithfulness. Because God keeps his word, and because we will continue to trust in him, we can view the present and the future with joy and peace.
Spiritual Application
Reflect carefully: in which areas of your life do you need more joy or more peace? How can you specifically trust God more in those areas?
Article supplied with thanks to Dr Eliezer Gonzalez.
About the Author: Dr Eli Gonzalez is the Senior Pastor of Good News Unlimited and the presenter of the Unlimited radio spots, and The Big Question. Sign up to his free online course called Becoming a Follower of Jesus to learn about Jesus and His message.
Feature image: Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash
