13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
fill you with all joy and peace
God has the capacity to fill the believer with “all” joy and peace by giving us hope. This implies that believers have degrees of joy and peace. It is one thing to possess these blessings partially, and it is another to be completely filled with them.
There is joy in knowing that God will fulfill His promises one day. God offers the believer an inner, personal peace that comes from knowing that He keeps His word.
PRINCIPLE:
Knowledge of how God keeps His Word gives us hope.
APPLICATION:
God does not fill us with hope by a trickle. He generates a full hope in us because He is our portion. This hope transcends circumstance.
There is a difference between happiness and joy and between pleasure and joy. Both happiness and pleasure depend upon man; their source is in man. Joy is independent of circumstances; it comes from God Himself and His promises. For example, nothing can separate us from the love of God. That is a joy!
