He watches over me... Advent of Joy #10

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
Rom 15:13

My theme seems to be trusting God doesn’t it?

I mean, OK. Advent is about waiting in hope for Christ’s birth.

I think part of that is trusting the promises that He has given us. The Israelites had to trust in God’s promises to provide for them in the desert. Abraham trusted in God to provide him a son in his old age.

Mary trusted that she would bear a son, just as the angel said. She submitted her will to God’s will.

There are so many instances of people, individuals and nations, trusting in the Lord their God.
I have been getting better at it recently. Not to say that it is easy by any means. It isn’t. But just doing these posts on Joy have helped me.

God has been faithful in so many areas in my life. There were things that I was unable trust Him in before, and now I know that He has always had good in mind for me. There are things now where I feel like I am running up against a brick wall, and there is no way around. But there is still God.

He has been more than enough in the past. So why wouldn’t He be more than enough now?
Every step of the way, He has watched over me. He has seen everything in me, even when I have tried to hide from Him. Yet, He has given me so many things. He has brought me through some terrible situations. He has brought me to some amazing victories. He has brought me incredible insights into Him and His word. He has made His word come alive to me. Every time I read the Bible, I learn something new about my God. I am so thankful.

I have learned like Mary was told by the angel,
“Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.“
Luke 1:37

So my God of hope… the one who spoke everything into being, and through whom all things hold together… the one who sent His Light and Hope into the world for us… has been filling me with all joy and peace…

The filling of all joy and peace comes when I trust in Him. When I abandon myself to His will, and wait on Him, I find that I am filled with joy and peace. It is amazing how that works. I get myself so wrought up over things…

…but God knows it all. He sees everything going on and when I surrender to Him, he fills me with joy and peace, and I am then filled with hope by the power of His Spirit at work within me.

He watches over me. He always has and He always will.