A prayer for hope when the future has gone dark, asking the God of hope to fill you with joy and peace in believing, against the evidence of the moment.
God of hope, fill me with joy and peace in believing. Anchor my soul in your promises when the future looks dark. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Pray this after bad news about the future in any form, in long seasons where nothing improves, when praying for someone whose hope is gone and yours must do double duty, or in the small hours when despair does its best work.
Hope in Scripture is not optimism and not temperament; it is anchored confidence in God's future, practiced in the present. Paul names God by it: 'May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing' (Romans 15:13). Its great portrait is Abraham, who 'against hope believed in hope' when every fact argued otherwise (Romans 4:18). Its great defense is Jeremiah's, spoken from a destroyed city: 'This I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases' (Lamentations 3:21-22). Peter calls Christians born again 'into a living hope' (1 Peter 1:3), and Hebrews pictures hope as 'an anchor of the soul, firm and secure' (Hebrews 6:19). Biblical hope is gritty: it does its work in hospitals, ruins, and long nights, not after them. This prayer is written for the dark-future moments, asking God to argue with the despair using his own record and his own promises.
“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.”
The God of hope, filling believers with joy and peace.
“This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.”
Hope argued from God's character in a ruined city.
“Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.”
Against hope, Abraham believed in hope.
“Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;”
Hope as an anchor of the soul, firm and secure.
“Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.”
Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD.
Argue the way Jeremiah did (Lamentations 3:21-24): call God's record and character to mind deliberately, and let hope follow the rehearsal. Romans 15:13 is the prayer itself in one verse: the God of hope filling you with joy and peace in believing, so that you abound in hope by the Spirit's power.
Optimism reads circumstances and predicts the best; hope reads God's promises and trusts them regardless of circumstances. Abraham hoped against hope with facts fully against him (Romans 4:18-21) and was 'fully convinced God was able to do what he had promised.' Hope is anchored in a Person, not a probability.
Lamentations 3:22-23 (mercies new every morning), Romans 15:13 (the God of hope), Hebrews 6:19 (hope as anchor), Jeremiah 29:11 (a future and a hope, spoken to exiles), Psalm 31:24 (take courage, you who wait), and Isaiah 40:31 (renewed strength for those who wait on the LORD).