Issue link: http://denverseminary.uberflip.com/i/215736
Christmas Hope RONALD D. WELCH, PSYD ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF COUNSELING the season of hope...Hope in the This isand woman...Hope in the best thatbirth of our Savior...Hope in the potential of our fellow man is inside of us... In his letter to the Romans, Paul encourages us to experience the joy and contentment that hope can provide. During this season when we celebrate the blessed birth of our Savior, we sense that hope through the kindness, consideration, love, and goodness that the season brings out in many of us. Do you feel that same hope all year long? Do you feel such trust in God that it permeates your soul and flows out of you through the power of the Spirit? Eugene Peterson, in The Message, paraphrases Romans 15:13 this way: "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) "Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!" If you don't feel that level of joy and peace in your life, flowing out of the hope that our Savior's birth brings, then perhaps the struggles and challenges of daily life are just too overwhelming. Like the characters in Lerner and Loewe's musical, "Camelot," you may feel that hope "...for one brief, shining moment..."—perhaps at Christmas—and then it goes away. Throughout the Bible, we see evidence that God is there with His people during the hard times. So, why is it that the rate of depression and anxiety is just as high in Christians as in non-Christians? If God is truly Immanuel—God With Us—then why is so much of our time devoted to worrying about the future? It would seem that we don't really trust that God "has our back"—at least, not often. 21 DECEMBER 26 Perhaps hope is less of a feeling than an action—a choice we make every moment of every day. Maybe you have to make a special effort to trust God, even in the small things, all the time. When you are faced with challenges, it may help to remember the hope that the Savior brings and focus on the peace and joy of God's presence. When we intentionally choose to be hopeful people, then as Paul says, we "overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit," and the spirit of Christmas lasts all year long. DENVER SEMINARY CHRISTMAS 2013