Hope

As I thought about this special week, one thing kept coming to mind. 

It is a truth the world badly needs. 

It’s a truth we aren’t born with.

A truth that gives us a realization that comforts - brings peace and stability amongst all the unknowns in our life.

It’s a truth that is our lifeboat to our thoughts amongst the storms and struggles; it’s a safety net, a rising airship that lifts our mindset above all the sticky burdens and cumbersome thoughts. 

As Isaiah wrote “it” renews our strength.  Makes us soar like eagles, run and not grow weary and walk and not faint.

I think of martyrs who clung and lived in the “beyond”, who knew personally the words of the Apostle Paul who wrote, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

What is the belief that has enable believers to endure even through harsh treatment, torture, and death throughout the ages?

What was this ultimate saving grace that empowered their mindset to transcend the natural? 

It was… “Hope”.

Every human desires hope. 

Some have unfortunately placed their hope in the things of this world only to pay dearly when those things fail them. 

Real hope isn’t some kind of “wishful” thinking but a confidence that wells up in the believer in Jesus Christ.   It is like the stiff wind that keeps our kite flying.  It is part of us but alien to us as well -for we could not manufacture or accomplished this hope by any means of our own.  It was gifted to us -when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. 

For when we were part of the world and thought and lived as the world, we didn’t have this hope and oddly we instinctively looked for this alien hope as if were a genetic spiritual code built in us by our Creator and passed down through all generations of humanity.

Man has tried to satisfy this need in their soul in many things - by loving the things of world, which could never satisfy.

1 John 2:15 says, “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.”

It is apparent when it came to these individuals -when it came to the few grains of sand in their hourglass they were gripped by sadness, fear, anxiety, hopelessness, and ultimate emptiness.  No human means (money, popularity, fame, power, relations, self-righteousness) could save them… 

Before Christ, we had no spiritual passport to take us to a place our soul always yearned for- “a true reality of hope”.  We were stuck but thank God, when we called out to God from the dark hole we found ourselves in -God lovingly reached down and rescued us….

King David wrote, “I love the LORD because He hears and answers my prayers. Because He bends down and listens, I will pray as long as I have breath!” Psalm 116:1-2

When the Spirit of God rescued us, he took the blinders from our eyes, leaned over our shoulder and pointed us to a door of light- “a gate of hope itself” (Jesus Christ). 

In this there was this moment of clarity where we knew this was an invitation from God.  We accepted and in doing so received a great renewal that had it roots in hope and a love we are still yet beginning to understand for it is so great.

I ponder this in my heart… what is true wisdom?  What is true knowledge? What is true power? What is true authority? What is true peace? What is true joy?  Is it not hope living in all its abundance?

Take a moment…. 

The bible refers to hope as a confidence, a confidence in our salvation in Jesus Christ.  (1 Thessalonians 5:8)

Hebrews 6:19 says, “This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls.  It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary.”

This hope in Jesus Christ anchors the soul to things that prospers it and keeps it away from what wants to steal from it.

This hope in Jesus Christ is to give us life and life more abundantly. 

The believer has been given the keys to God’s house.  So if our soul isn’t prospering – we must ask ourselves – “Where have I put my spiritual keys- where have we put our hope? 

Where is that spiritual access card that allows me to have access into the things of God like peace, love, joy, faith, renewal, confidence, grace and so on?”  Where have I put my hope?”  What have I mistakenly placed before God in my life?

John 3:17 “For God did not send his Son (Jesus Christ) into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”

Jesus came into the world to save it and give it a lasting hope… but it is our choice to come to him be spiritually sustained by Him or not.  It is our choice to love darkness more then the light of hope in God.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Think about it…  This is a message for you who are saved and you who haven’t given your life to the Lord yet.

Hope are you living in it?