Be Joyful in Hope
Mike Routledge
Part of Be Reasonable
September 4, 2021

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. —Romans 12:9-13 NIV

Joy is an attitude. Happiness is a destination.
Joy is in the heart. Happiness is in the moment.
Joy transcends. Happiness reacts.
Joy is a practice and a behavior. Happiness comes and goes.
Joy is an inner feeling. Happiness is an outward expression.
Joy doesn’t need control. Happiness requires control.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds” —James 1:2 (NIV)

“Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus. —1 Thess. 5:16-18 (NLT)

I will give her grape-fields there, and make the Valley of Trouble a door of hope. And she will sing there as she did when she was young, as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt. —Hosea 2:15 (NIV)

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. —(Prov. 13:12 (NIV)

We look

to see where we’re going.

We look

to forget where we’ve been.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. —Philippians 5:13-14 (NIV)

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen—one from each of the tribes of Israel. He told them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.” —Joshua 4:4-7 (NLT)

Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. —Psalm 146:5 (NIV)

We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone. —Psalm 33:20-22 (NIV)