13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

I wonder at times, while we live through our current worlds trials, how previous generations lived through theirs. From the depression era my parents experienced, to the fears over nuclear war of my childhood, to times of war. Each generation has their own trials and tribulations.

The one thing that should bind us as Christians is abounding hope. Not just hope, but abounding hope.

We are not told to be timid but to be bold in our faith. Possibly even to the point where others are experiencing nothing but fear mongering, we find and display an abounding hope.

Hopefully so much so that they will ask, “how can this be that you have such hope?”

Then we have an opportunity to tell others about why we are different and in who all of our trust and hope are placed.

But first we must check ourselves and make sure that we are truly abounding in the hope that Christ brings. We are looking beyond our current circumstance to the great glory we are promised.

We know that there is good reason to have abounding hope.