While hope is fundamentally given to us as a gift, it is for us to work at cultivating it. Thankfully, someone else has been entrusted to empower hope.

I don’t know about you, but there are times when I can muster up an imitation of true hope by fixing my attention or expectation on some experience or reality I think might bring me hope. This is not the kind of hope for which Jesus became human and died. True hope is given to us as a gift. It really is the unavoidable response of a heart that has been reclaimed by Jesus for God. Moreover, it is a permanent hope as the Holy Spirit comes to dwell inside of us. And because this hope is founded on the Trinity, it is a true hope that has a beginning and is able to propel every other kind of hope we can have. It is eternal in nature because it is anchored in our heavenly Father who is described as the “God of hope” (Romans 15:13).

But how do we cultivate or fan hope? In the same passage I just mentioned, there are a couple things that hint to our part. Here is the way the apostle Paul puts it:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. “

According to Paul, hope can abound in our lives. How can this be possible? Simply put: through our believing what God says and being receptive to the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Paul emphasizes that a heart that is hospitable and receptive to God’s Word can experience joy and peace and this, combined with the power what works within us, will cause hope to abound. This plan of God is extraordinary and it involves His part and our part!

Paul’s argument brings up some questions: what drives my life? Whose counsel is most influential over my heart? Whose words shape my soul? Whose work do I come under? Whose power and enablement do I lean on? Am I surrendering to the Holy Spirit or have I opted out for a life of commitment? Commitment that substitutes true surrender?

The redemptive work of Christ has obtained many wonderful things, including the reality that God’s children can be the most hopeful human beings the world has ever known.

How’s your hope these days?

Are you cultivating hope? Does your strategy includes believing what God says and the very presence and work of His Spirit within you? If this is not the case, you may want to consider what kind of hope is really driving your life.

God of Hope, help us to believe you,

Aid us so that we surrender to your Spirit and welcome His work in us.

—Diego Cuartas