Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. Romans 12:12 NLT

On this globe. Just one look at the news and we’ll have a front-row seat to wars, riots, pandemics and countless other atrocities that carry the power to shake our confidence to its very core.Now please understand, I do not intend to spell a completely bleak future, no not at all. What’s imperative for us to remember is what or in whom we place our hope. As I read in the New Testament, uses the word hope many times, and each time it’s used, it’s in the same context. One online bible study resource I use is The Blue Letter Bible. So, having a curious mind, I thought I would take a deeper look at this word. Now I don’t consider myself a scholar or a theologian. I’m as I mentioned earlier am just curious. So when I looked up hope as it pertains to Romans 12:12, I found that when this word was used by the Apostle Paul in this verse, the Greek word ἐλπίς or elpís has a far deeper meaning than previously understood. Strongs number g1680 defines hope: • A joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation. • To trust. • That in which one confides or to which he flees for refuge.So I think I could confidently state that when God’s word tells us to hope, it’s not just some lame wish for something to be true or to happen. No, when God’s word tells us to hope, we know that He’s telling us something that we can be absolutely confident in, that we can take to the bank.Life is undoubtedly tough sometimes, so when we’re told in the midst of trouble to “Rejoice in our confident hope,” well I know for myself, my first reaction is not always to paint on a Colgate smile. To fake it till you make it is not what our God is asking of us, instead we are to “rejoice in confident hope.” To rejoice regardless of the circumstances, will always be our choice. He’s waiting to empower us to stand in defiant hope, even in the midst of our struggles, because our hope is no longer in the fragile things of this world, no instead our hope is firmly placed in Jesus, our unshakable faithful God, therefore I and we all can have a Hope that Is Defiant.