God’s Hope is Expectation
Happy New Year!
For some, 2024 was a year of distress and pain. For others, it was a banner year! In either case, “time keeps ticking into the future.”
Don’t get stuck in the past, but learn from it. If you keep doing the same thing, you will get the same results. Look forward; you cannot change the past.
The other night, Kathy and I were gathered with a small group of friends, and I was asked, “What my ‘word’ for 2025 is?” I had not thought much about it, but out of my spirit came the word "HOPE.”
Hope looks forward. We are saved in hope. Hope that is seen is no longer hope… But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Romans 8:24-25). Interestingly, the very next verse says, “LIKEWISE the Spirit helps us in our weakness…interceding for us with groaning too deep for words…according to the will of God” (Romans 8:26-27).
Don’t throw away your hope! Biblical hope is NOT an “I hope so,” a wish. It is your confidence in God’s GRACE to do what we cannot do in our own strength. Biblical HOPE is EXPECTATION. Without it, you cannot have faith (Hebrews 11:1). We were saved in hope (Romans 8:24), and BY THE SPIRIT, out of faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness” (Galatians 5:5; 1 Peter 1:3). The HOLY SPIRIT is the guarantee of our HOPE (Ephesians 1:13-14; 2 Corinthians 1:22).
Do you feel vulnerable and weak? Welcome to the club. We may feel weak one minute and strong the next, but our HOPE is an anchor to our soul (Hebrews 6:18-20). JESUS is the firstborn of a new creation, of which we are second! The hope of the resurrection is our chief HOPE (Act 23:6; 24:15; 1 Peter 1:3)!
Our strength does not come from ourselves (our earthly lives, our flesh), but from HIM in whom we trust, in Jesus, in the GRACE that is all SUFFICIENT for us (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Like Paul, we can be “content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am STRONG” (2 Corinthians 12:10), because the GRACE OF GOD THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS IS OUR TRUMP CARD.
Whatever we may be going through is ONLY TEMPORARY (2 Corinthians 4:14-5:10).
And may the GOD OF HOPE fill y’all with all joy and peace in believing, and that you might ABOUND IN HOPE by the HOLY SPIRIT’s power.