Day 19 of Her New Beginning: 31 Days of Healing, Identity, Renewal and Purpose
Romans 15:13 KJV
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
Hope sounds beautiful until you have been disappointed.
It is easy to tell someone to keep believing when you are not the one who waited, prayed, expected and then watched something unfold differently from what you hoped. After enough disappointment, the heart can begin protecting itself. You stop expecting too much because expectation feels dangerous. You stop dreaming as freely as you once did. Sometimes you even stop praying specifically because somewhere inside you is the thought, “What if I believe again and nothing happens?”
We rarely call this hopelessness. We give it more respectable names. We call it being realistic, being careful or simply growing wiser. Sometimes that is true; maturity should make us wiser. But sometimes what we call realism is actually disappointment that has quietly taught our hearts not to expect goodness anymore.
Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick.” Scripture does not pretend delayed expectations have no effect on us. There are things you genuinely hoped would happen by now. Perhaps you thought the marriage would be different, the opportunity would have come, the financial situation would have changed, the prayer would have been answered in the way you expected, or the person you trusted would have remained. When those expectations break, something inside us can become afraid to hope again.
Yet Romans 15 does not merely tell us to manufacture optimism. It introduces us to “the God of hope.”
That changes everything.
When Disappointment Starts Writing Tomorrow
One of the dangers of disappointment is that it does not always remain attached to yesterday. If we are not careful, yesterday’s pain begins making predictions about tomorrow.
One relationship failed, so perhaps healthy love does not exist for you. One business idea collapsed, so perhaps you are simply not meant to succeed. One person rejected you, so perhaps everybody eventually will. You prayed and did not receive the answer you expected, so perhaps there is no point expecting anything anymore.
The heart can take one painful chapter and use it to write the rest of the book.
But your past does not have enough information to predict everything God can still do.
Ruth is one of my favourite pictures of this. When she left Moab, she was a widow walking into an uncertain future. From where she stood, there was no obvious evidence of Boaz, restoration or the extraordinary lineage into which her life would eventually be woven. Boaz already existed, but Ruth could not see him from Moab.
That speaks deeply to me because there may be things God has already positioned beyond the range of what you can presently see.
You are interpreting your entire story from today’s location, but today’s location is not the whole story.
Hannah weeping did not yet look like Samuel’s mother. Joseph in the pit did not look like the man who would eventually govern Egypt. David hiding from Saul did not look like King David. The circumstances were real, but they were incomplete.
Be careful about making permanent conclusions from incomplete chapters.
Hope Is Not Pretending
Biblical hope is not pretending painful things did not happen. It does not require you to smile over something that wounded you and call it wonderful. Neither does hope mean every desire will unfold exactly as you imagine.
Romans 15:13 roots our hope in God Himself. That means my confidence is ultimately not in my ability to control the outcome but in the character of the One who holds my future.
There is a difference between saying, “Everything will happen exactly the way I want,” and saying, “Whatever happens, God will remain faithful, and my life is still safe in His hands.”
The first statement attempts to control tomorrow. The second trusts God with it.
I think some of us have exhausted ourselves trying to tell God exactly how His goodness should look. We have the person, date, method, location and perhaps even the colour scheme prepared. All we need is for Heaven to sign at the bottom!
But God is not limited to the version of goodness we have imagined.
Ephesians 3:20 says He “is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” That means there are dimensions of God’s ability beyond both our prayers and our imagination. Sometimes the answer looks different because God sees more than we do.
“Against Hope Believed in Hope”
Romans 4:18 says something remarkable about Abraham: “Who against hope believed in hope.”
Naturally speaking, there were reasons not to expect the promise. Abraham was old, Sarah was beyond the ordinary age of childbearing, and time itself appeared to be arguing against what God had said.
Yet hope found its foundation in God’s promise rather than natural probability.
This does not mean we should take every personal desire and declare that God must fulfil it. Faith is not presumption. Abraham had a word from God. Our confidence must always remain rooted in God’s Word and character rather than our determination to get our own way.
But when God has spoken, circumstances do not receive permission to redefine Him.
Perhaps the greatest battle after disappointment is not getting another opportunity. It is allowing your heart to believe that God is still good.
Can you believe He is good before the answer appears? Can you trust Him when you cannot yet explain the season? Can you allow His character to remain greater than the thing that hurt you?
That is where hope begins to breathe again.
Hope Through the Power of the Holy Ghost
There is a phrase at the end of Romans 15:13 that we should not overlook. Paul says that we may “abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
Hope has a supernatural dimension.
Sometimes you cannot simply talk yourself into it. You have already given yourself the motivational speech. You have stood in front of the mirror, quoted something encouraging and told yourself, “This is my year,” perhaps more than once. There comes a point when the heart needs something deeper than positive thinking.
The Holy Spirit can breathe hope into places disappointment emptied.
This is why you can bring your honest emotions into God’s presence. Tell Him what disappointed you. Tell Him where you became afraid to believe. Tell Him which dream you quietly buried because hoping for it began to hurt.
God is not threatened by honest conversation.
David’s Psalms prove that. He could begin a Psalm overwhelmed and finish it remembering the faithfulness of God. Somewhere in the conversation, perspective changed.
Perhaps that is what needs to happen in you. Not denial of what happened, but a fresh encounter with the God who remains present after it happened.
There Are Chapters You Have Not Read Yet
One of the hardest things about painful seasons is that we are experiencing them without access to the next chapter.
We know what happened yesterday and what is happening today, but tomorrow remains hidden. That can make today’s pain feel final.
But God sees the whole story.
Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” God knows thoughts about your future that you have not yet discovered.
So perhaps it is time to stop rehearsing only what could go wrong.
What if there is still goodness ahead?
What if there are people you have not met, doors you have not seen, ideas you have not received and moments of joy you cannot presently imagine? What if God can redeem what was lost in ways you have not considered?
Hope does not demand that you know exactly what tomorrow contains. Hope simply refuses to believe that disappointment has already seen everything tomorrow can become.
You are allowed to dream again. You are allowed to pray again. You are allowed to become excited about something again without immediately reminding yourself of every previous disappointment.
Ask the Holy Spirit what should remain buried and what needs to live again. Not every old dream needs resurrection, because sometimes God closes one chapter to lead us somewhere better. But there are also desires, gifts and possibilities that fear buried prematurely.
Do not let pain make decisions that faith should be making.
Your story is still unfolding. The woman who was disappointed is not disqualified from becoming the woman who hopes again. Romans does not call Him the God of hope because He only works with people who have never been hurt. He is the God who can fill wounded hearts “with all joy and peace in believing.”
So make room for hope again. Not shallow optimism. Not denial. Not pretending.
Hope rooted in God.
You may not know what comes next, but you know Who will be there when it comes.
Prayer
God of hope, I bring You every place where disappointment has made me afraid to expect again. Heal the parts of my heart that have used yesterday’s pain to predict tomorrow. Where I have confused hopelessness with wisdom, renew my mind. I surrender the outcomes I cannot control, but I refuse to surrender my confidence in Your goodness. By the power of the Holy Ghost, fill me with joy and peace in believing. Show me which dreams to release and which ones need courage to live again. Teach me to face my future knowing that You are already there. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Today’s Declaration
I am learning to hope again. Disappointment will not become the prophecy of my future. My confidence is rooted in the God of hope, not in circumstances I can control. I refuse to make permanent conclusions from incomplete chapters. By the power of the Holy Ghost, joy, peace and expectation are rising in me again. My story is still unfolding, God is still faithful, and there is goodness ahead that I have not yet seen. I am a Wonder Model Woman.