Hope: Faithfulness While We Wait
Today’s devotional
Waiting can make the future feel smaller. An answer has not arrived, a relationship remains strained, or a loss has changed the shape of ordinary life. After enough disappointment, expecting very little may seem easier. Hope can feel difficult to receive when we are tired of imagining how things might turn out.
Paul's prayer in Romans 15 belongs to a community learning to welcome one another across real differences. Their hope was joined to God's faithfulness and the promises received through Scripture. Paul asked God to fill them with joy and peace through faith, so that hope would abound by the Holy Spirit's power.
This prayer gives us someone to turn toward while circumstances remain unresolved. We can name grief plainly and ask for help. We can remember a mercy, receive a friend's company, and attend to a responsibility that remains ours. Waiting still contains opportunities for faithful love, even when the outcome we long for is beyond our control.
On the road to Emmaus, two disciples told a stranger about the hope they had placed in Jesus and the sorrow surrounding his death. The stranger was the risen Christ. He listened and opened the Scriptures, helping them see the suffering they had witnessed within God's larger story. Resurrection had already changed their future before they recognized who was walking beside them.
Christ's resurrection does not promise that every event will unfold as we prefer. It gives Christian hope its enduring ground. The Holy Spirit can sustain our trust when we have few words and little energy. A community can carry hope through meals, prayer, practical help, and patient presence. Receive what helps you continue today. Then consider one action that agrees with hope: keeping a promise, seeking care, or staying near someone who is grieving. Such love has a place in the future God is bringing.
Adapted from Week 4, “Hope: Trusting that darkness is not the whole story,” in Wonder Words by Dr. R. C. Titus.
Read the Scripture
Open each passage and read slowly. Notice how the word takes shape within God’s story.
Romans 15:7-13 · WEBU
7Therefore accept one another, even as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God.
8Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the fathers,
9and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Therefore I will give praise to you among the Gentiles and sing to your name.”
10Again he says, “Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”
11Again, “Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles! Let all the peoples praise him.”
12Again, Isaiah says, “There will be the root of Jesse, he who arises to rule over the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles will hope.”
13Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Luke 24:13-27 · WEBU
13Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem.
14They talked with each other about all of these things which had happened.
15While they talked and questioned together, Jesus himself came near, and went with them.
16But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
17He said to them, “What are you talking about as you walk, and are sad?”
18One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things which have happened there in these days?”
19He said to them, “What things?” They said to him, “The things concerning Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people;
20and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.
21But we were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.
22Also, certain women of our company amazed us, having arrived early at the tomb;
23and when they didn’t find his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.
24Some of us went to the tomb and found it just like the women had said, but they didn’t see him.”
25He said to them, “Foolish people, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
26Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?”
27Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Pause and respond
For reflection
What would one hopeful act of faithfulness look like in a situation I cannot yet resolve?
A practice for today
Name one unresolved sorrow in prayer. Recall one sign of God's faithfulness, then take a small action that supports life today, such as receiving help or keeping a promise.
A prayer
God of hope, meet me in the waiting and receive the truth of what hurts. Holy Spirit, sustain my trust when the future is difficult to imagine. Risen Jesus, help me receive your presence through Scripture and the care of others. Give me one loving step to take today. Amen.
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