Tiwalan

Romans 15:13 -- "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."

Tiwalan - Tagalog word meaning HOPE.

The room smelled of hot, buttery popped corn and in the dim light of the satellite menu screen we could see the spritely bubbles jumping up out of our glasses, bursting with the effervescence of freshly poured soda. Now, we were sure the move would be wonderful - if only the satellite tuner would cooperate.

Lately the television signal has been hit or miss and it takes several minutes for Steven to go through the tedious steps of realigning the dish by remote. As it turns out, it's not worth the frustration and on movie night we skip the television channels and put in a favorite DVD or check out what Netflix has to offer. I have to say, I'm a huge fan of Netflix. You would not believe what we save by NOT having a satellite bill.

When I was young, it wasn't about a digital anything. We didn't have movies on disk and we certainly didn't have a satellite. Those things just hadn't come into being, yet. But I CAN remember Dad or Uncle Charlie Hawkins having to climb up on the tin roof to mess about with the huge unsightly antennae. One of them would do the climbing while the other one hollered out into the air to notify when a clear signal had been obtained. Yes, life as a missionary kid was, indeed, chock-o-block full of adventure. When a clear signal was somehow captured, we could all sit around the analog television watching re-re-re-runs of black and white Elvis movies. It was either that, or Filipino soap-operas.

The thing is, while yes - technology has come a very long way - there still is not a lot of picture if one is unable to "tune in" properly. And to this day - it comes down to proper signal adjustment. It's just a different kind of signal now than it was when I was a kid in a third-world country.

I love Romans 15:13 because in this verse we learn that there is hope, peace, and joy! We've been given a direct pipe-line to THE ONE who can provide these things in our lives. However, like a misaligned satellite dish, we have no hope of obtaining those things unless we tune in properly. This verse tells us that there is enough hope and joy out there that we can actually OVERFLOW with them! .... BUT we have to TRUST in Him! The verse doesn't say if we work hard enough at our jobs, or if we serve enough at church, or if we provide for our families well enough or volunteer in our community enough we will overflow with joy. Nope. It says as we trust in our Lord, we can overflow with hope and joy by the power of the Holy Spirit.

How do we tap into the power of the Holy Spirit?

We tune in!

Adjust those rabbit ears of ours by staying tuned in to God's Word. Dedicate our focus to Jesus Christ and we will be properly aligned! We will overflow with Gods amazing and abundant joy!