by Desiree Bustamante

May you be filled with the confident hope Christ has given you.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.

Today is the ninth day of Christmas and the second day of 2022. Most of us are resuming our daily routines after celebrating the holidays. We start the promises we make to ourselves to improve our lives. A New Year can give us hope. Hope of prosperity, better relationships, fulfilled dreams. Hope for our loved ones and for the world.

Yet we know we can’t make the bad stuff of this world go away. And when we experience difficult times it’s hard to feel hopeful.

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15: 13 New Living Translation

Real hope is not at all dependent on the events of this world or the fulfillment of our desires. Real hope came to us in the form of a baby wrapped in strips of cloths, who slept on prickly straw that was meant for sacrificial sheep. Real hope came to us in a resurrected Savior who died a painful, forsaken death on a cross.

True, enduring hope is found in relationship with our Lord and Savior, whose love for you is real and present and has no end, even on the days that feel bleak and hopeless.

We don’t know what this day or month or year will bring, yet in a relationship with Christ hope always exists, even when our minds believe there is none. When what you see doesn’t give you hope, what’s inside of you—the power of the Holy Spirit abiding in your heart—is your hope for each moment.

Whether this year is filled with chaos or calm, serenity or sadness, may you rely on Christ to fill you with confident hope and peace that is beyond our understanding.

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado