Rejoice, Don’t Howl
How can we believers in Christ not be optimistic? God is sovereign (Ps 115:3) and nothing can separate us from His love for us (Rom 8:38-39). When we fit into His plans, absolutely everything that happens to us is for our ultimate good (Rom 8:28, LB). God the Holy Spirit helps us in our daily struggles (Gal 5:16) while the Lord Jesus Christ is praying for us (Heb 7:25; Rom 8:27). We are free from current and future condemnation (Rom 8:1). Indeed, we have already passed from death to life (Jn 5:24). Furthermore, the love that God has given us is ever willing and eager to believe the best (1 Cor 13:7, Moffatt with AB). Surely, Christians should be optimists!
Rom 12:12 tells us that our confident expectation of receiving good from the Lord (i. e. our hope) should lead us to be joyful. Hope, prayer, and enduring difficulties are interrelated. Each strengthens the others. Hope, which Barclay translates as ‘optimism,’ implies that our journey to the fulfillment of hope will involve hardships, pain, difficulties that must be endured in faith and by continuing in prayer (Moo, The Epistle To The Romans, p 779). Optimism is fed by prayer and by seeing the Lord help us through painful trials.
As Christians, we are told to be optimistic (Rom 8:37). More than this, we are to be joyfully optimistic (Rom 12:12, Barclay). We should be able to face each day with a smile. We ought to look for the best and to know that even our tears, as we fit into God’s plans, lead to our rainbows. If we honestly confess His truth, we will see opportunities. We will keep praying for the ability to endure our trials. Thus, we will, with joy, confidently expect good from Him.
This is all true, but we are weak. We often lose heart, don’t bother praying as we need to, wake up with pain and a groan, focus on the hardship more than the opportunity. We cry, wail, or howl for what we don’t have (Hos 7:14, CEV with NLT) but don’t see the rainbows because we have not endured enough in faith. Life is hard. We believers can face each day with joyful optimism – yet it is a struggle! Let us not give up in the struggle!
Loving trust is more important than mere head knowledge.