“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been around someone who told the same story all the time? Maybe it was a parent or another family member. It could have been a friend or even merely an acquaintance. Perhaps the story was good the first time, but after a while it got old and stale. Then it got irritating. You didn’t want to hear that story again. Your familiarity with it had gradually begun to breed some contempt in your heart for both it and the person telling it. If we’re not careful, the stories of Jesus can become this for us. They never change, and we hear the same ones at the same times of year every year. Yet when we really grasp what they are telling, that same familiarity can breed anticipation instead. Let’s talk about why this is and how to make the change.

Growing up, before it wasn’t cool anymore, I was a huge Bill Cosby fan. I enjoyed his sitcom for sure, but I really loved his stand-up comedy acts. The first place I listened to them was on records. We had several of his comedy records at the house, and I listened to them all the time. Then I found more at a garage sale. Eventually I found them all on CD and bought them in that form so I could take them with me in the car. I might have downloaded them all on Napster when that was a thing too. Over time, I got to where I could just about recite several of his acts right along with him. I memorized one so thoroughly that I delivered it at a talent show at summer camp one year. I would listen to them over and over and over and laugh my head off every single time. They never got old.

Now, why is that? Why could I listen to those over and over again, but other stories I grew tired of after hearing them only once or twice? What made me look forward to those with great anticipation rather than irritation or even dread? Their entertainment value was certainly part of it. I think the reason is that I knew how they would make me feel. Every time I listened to them, I was going to laugh. It was a positive experience. Whatever else happened to be going on in my life, listening to those stand-up comedy acts were going to make me feel just a bit better. They were a small instrument of hope.

That’s the key here.

Those stories gave me hope, and so I was glad to turn back to them again and again. Now, this wasn’t some kind of a profound hope. They just made me laugh (and there are all kinds of documented health benefits to laughing). Had I put more stock in them than I did, that hope would have eventually failed me and the stories would have been a bust. But as long as I let them be what they were, they filled their role beautifully.

What Paul wishes for us here is the power of hope. He wishes for us to have lives that overflow with hope thanks to the presence of God’s Spirit in us. This hope comes from an effusion of joy and peace from our belief in the God of hope Himself. Well, how does this happen? How do we gain access to such a thing? What can strengthen our belief and the presence of the Holy Spirit in us?

May I make a suggestion? The stories of the Scriptures. The Scriptures are God’s primary means of self-revelation. Well, they are His secondary means. Jesus was and is His primary means, but the Scriptures are what He primarily uses to reveal Jesus to us. The Scriptures are our ticket into the kind of belief that can gain us access to this incredible hope, this gift of anticipation. The more consistently, deeply, and intentionally we engage with them, the more fully we will come to understand who God is. And the more fully we come to understand who God is, the greater our hope will be. We will gain a more complete grasp of what He has done for us and what He has yet promised for us. Those actions and promises are indeed powerful. That can bring great joy and peace to our lives when we properly understand them.

How fully, then, are you engaging with the stories of the Scriptures? This time of year, as we are preparing for the coming of the Lord Jesus, we are wise and do well to spend more time than usual engaging with the stories of His first coming – both its promise and its event. They speak to God’s faithfulness. They shout of His love for us. They reveal both His passion and His compassion for His people. They revealed humanity at both its worst and also its best. They show the surprising ways God can work His plans and receive glory both from people who are faithfully serving Him, but also who don’t really have any idea who He is beyond a title. He is creative and clever. There are no worldly obstacles He cannot overcome. His plan will be accomplished. His promises will be kept. And because of that, the trials and travails of this life will not overcome us as long as we stay hidden in Him.

All of this from some stories that threaten to grow stale because we read them without paying much attention. We don’t notice the details. We listen, but not to hear. This Advent season, read them again. And again. Let the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you come to believe once again so that you may overflow with hope, so that you may receive this gift of anticipation, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And then, when Christmas comes, you will indeed be ready.