A Thing Called Hope

People all talk about hope. They say, “I hope to be a better person next year.” “I hope to make a contribution to the world in my lifetime.” “I hope I will go to heaven when I die.”
The problem with all of those declarations is the “I” at the beginning of them. If all we have to trust in is the “I” then we have no hope. Paul describes the person who doesn’t know Christ in this way:
Eph 2:12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Hope then becomes a present reality as it presents itself as a future reality. Trusting in Christ brings this hope into the heart and life of the child of God. Paul says in Romans 8:24, 25:
For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
Hope then is a matter of assurance rather than a fantasy about what is going to happen. It is a quality imprinted on the heart of a believer. It is such a reality that giants of the faith have been willing to die because of it. The Psalmist said in Psalm 39:7
And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You.
Hope then rests in a person, Jesus Christ. It is explained in the Word of God so that becomes foundational to hope as well. Paul writes in Romans 15:4
For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
Believers are people of hope. They have a bright outlook for today, but their hope goes beyond the grave so that the future is grounded in a wonderful hope for today. Lift up your heads. Trust in the Lord.
The capstone of hope is seen in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. His Disciples felt that His death had closed His life and that they had lost the hope for a new nation for which they had been waiting. Jesus’ resurrection told them that they would not have a new nation, but that they were part of a new kingdom, the kingdom of God. His death gave them life. His resurrection gave them hope. His presence in them confirmed that hope as it does in us. Paul describes that in Colossians 1:27
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
This hope then is present and future. It is comforting and challenging. John says that because of the hope of the coming of the Lord we should have the purity of the Lord in our lives. I John 3:3
And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Hope that is not certain is not hope. It is a pretext because there is no way of knowing whether it is hope. There is no hope for those who are outside of Christ because the future is an uncertain thing. We can know that Jesus died for us. We can know that He rose for us. We can know that He lives for us. We can know that He will return to take His children to be with Him. That hope is available to all.

The Walk of Faith

An excerpt from the article: THE DIFFERENCE Walking by faith or sight

The Wonderful Benefits of the Walk of Faith
There are wonderful benefits that come to the child of God who discovers the Walk of Faith. It is not a message of wealth and prosperity, but it is a message of peace and joy. Romans 5:1-5 makes it clear that the walk of faith will bring fantastic results to the pilgrim taking this journey.
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Through Him we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice on the hope of the glory of God.
3 And not only this, but we glory in afflictions also, knowing that afflictions work out patience,
4 and patience works out experience, and experience works out hope.
5 And hope does not make us ashamed, because the love of God
has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us.
We see that the first benefits that come from justification are peace and a standing in the glory of God. If there were no other benefits, this would be wonderful. It is clear that man has been estranged from God and now that breach has been settled and God stands ready to forgive all who come to Him in faith. The amazing thing is that God reached out to us while we were yet sinners and made this all possible.
The second benefit does not seem quite so glamorous. He says that we will have afflictions, but then Paul adds that the afflictions will produce patience (or strength) in our lives. We can consider the afflictions benefit number two and the strength then is benefit three.
Both of these lead to the next one which is experience. The believer is growing through the pathway that God has designed. No one would ask to have afflictions, but when you realize that they are going to give you strength and experience then you can see what God is doing in you. It is a great development program that is producing the image of Christ in each believer.
Benefit number five is hope that comes from experience. We learn that God is faithful and has produced strength and a constant awareness of His presence in our lives. When we have that we have hope because we have learned that God is doing what He promised and is producing His desired results in our lives.
Then we see that we have learned something about love that we did not know before and we experience it in our lives because we have the presence of the Holy Spirit. It is too bad that so many have put an emphasis on physical things that the Spirit does for the believer. The ministry of the Holy Spirit makes us better people and because of that, we have a much greater impact on the world in which we live.
The people of this world have trouble with the children of God. They see so many different kinds of people that they have a difficult time understanding just what God wants to do in the lives of His children. They only hear the things in which Christians don’t participate and then think of these believers as people who are crusading against all these things. We need to do all we can to make them hear what we are for and not focus on what we are against. To make a clear statement of what we feel cannot be in the lives of Christians should not mean that we are carrying on crusades to keep everyone with that same commitment. No one is going to go to heaven because of the things they are against. It does not work that way. People go to heaven because of what Christ has done and nothing we can do or not do will add to what He has done.
What Christ has done becomes the foundation of our walk of faith. Faith sounds like something we are doing, but it really is not. We could have faith in any number of things that would not help us at all. If I say that I have the faith to win the lottery, will my faith win the lottery or will the lottery do its own thing. If I don’t win the lottery, then I have put my faith in the wrong process. If I have the faith to go out and take a job, and do it and work hard at it, then my faith has not done it, the job and the hard work have done it. If I place my faith in Christ to save me, and then am saved, my faith has not saved me, but Christ has saved me. If I place my faith in my good works and am lost, then it is the fact that I trusted in the wrong thing that means I am lost forever. My faith may have been just as strong as it would be when I trusted in the right thing. That means that it is important to trust in the right thing.