In Esther 2, we meet the title character and learn that she’s not the heroine we’d expect. She’s a compromised character who’s broken God’s Law and who’s been broken by the world. Yet, even when she cannot perceive it, God is at work in and through to rescue her people.

How can you live by faith when you feel far from God? What about he seems entirely absent from you life? The Book of Esther encourages us that God is at work even when he feels hidden from us. By his providence, God works to keep his promises even when his people feel far from him.

As Paul rounds out this section of his letter in Romans 15, he prays that God would fill his fellow believers in the Roman church with all joy and peace in believing so that through the Holy Spirit they would abound in hope. Much in our lives pushes against joy, peace, and hope. Often, we find ourselves filled more with bitterness, anxiety, and fear. We sense our need for the hope that comes at Christmas—the hope of Jesus Christ—to fill our lives. Yet, this hope can seem elusive. As Paul prays, he reminds us that this hope comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our advent series has us considering the hope of the gospel as Paul unpacks it in Romans 15. The hope of the gospel is for our good and for the glory of God. When we come to share in the hope of Christ, this hope overflows from our lives in worship and honor to God.

Romans 15 reminds us that the hope of the gospel is for all people. As gospel people, this hope should overflow from us into serving those around us in Jesus’s name.