Day 3 - Hope and the Spirit

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Hope and the Spirit

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given to us.
Romans 5:5

“Don’t talk of love burning inside,” sings Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. “Don’t talk of love, show me!” She has a point. Love, in the abstract, may make a fine subject for a romantic song or a Valentine card, but in the real world it has to be grounded in action. Love does not just croon, it also acts. Love gets up at 2:00 am when the baby is crying. Love holds the hand of an alzheimer’s patient whose memory is gone. Love is so much more than words.

Paul knew this, so, when he spoke of the hope that does not disappoint us, he did not give in evidence the abstract love of which theologians sometimes write. Instead, Paul spoke of the active love of God, worked out in our lives through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This is not the objective love of the cross of Calvary, it is the subjective love of the Christian walk. Our hope for the future is bound up in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit. As we see God at work in His people, through the prompting and enabling of the Spirit, so our hope is renewed. We see, before our eyes, that God can change lives, that love works. No wonder we are encouraged.

The coming of the Holy Spirit is also the fulfillment of Old Testament hope, expressed by the prophets, made real at Pentecost. God had promised that He would “pour out His Spirit on all flesh,” and that “sons and daughters would prophesy” (Joel 2). On the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit fell, that covenant was fulfilled. It continues to be fulfilled in us.

Whenever we live out the precepts of the Gospel; whenever we refuse to conform to the prejudices of this world; whenever we allow the wind of the Spirit to blow through our lives; then we become a source of hope. In the end, though, it’s not our obedience that encourages, it’s God’s faithfulness. He promised the Spirit, and the Spirit has come. Therefore, we live in hope.

Prayer for the Day
Holy Spirit,
wind and fire of God,
fan the weak embers of our love into a flame.
Fill up what is lacking in our devotion to Christ.
Make our lives testimonies to the love that can still transform. In the name of Jesus.
Amen.