…but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. (I Peter 3:15 ESV)
Time and Hope
If Faith is founded on the past, Hope obviously is founded on the future. We do not hope for yesterday, we hope for tomorrow. Hope happens when we consider the paths ahead of us and know that the road ahead is grand.
Hope is also founded on God. Because we have relationship with the One True Living God, we lean on Him to understand what is going to happen. His amazing grace and astounding goodness assure us that our future glows.
We often are able to find a kind of hope on our own. Experience guides our expectations. Most of us reading this devotional live in a resource-rich nation, in caring communities, among loving family and friends. And so when trouble happens, we reasonably assume and expect peace, prosperity, and success. That is certainly hope.
Problems arise, and we logically analyze our situations. We often arrive intellectually and emotionally at hope rather than despair.
But not always.
For instance, in times of war, or political upheaval, or illness, or pandemic, or recession, or depression, or loss, or worry, or fear… hope is sometimes hard to come by.
Biblical hope is different than the kind of hope we usually find. Our common hope is logical but unsure. It is optimistic but not absolute. It is helpful, but not completely reliable.
God knows this. He knows that we live in the material world, locked in our time stream, without His omniscience or omnipresence.
So He grants us another supernatural gift, alongside Faith. Instead of mere hope, He gives His people HOPE.
Tethered to God through Christ, we know without any reason for doubt that heaven is the end result of Christians’ lives. We know it not merely by logic (although it is logical,) not merely by analysis (although it does make sense,) not merely by cheerful disposition (although our disposition is connected to our hope.) We know it because God offers our hearts to be filled with HOPE.
HOPE is a gift from God, given because He knows that we are unsure on our own…. Because He knows that we think more about the unknown future than anything else… Because we are prone to sinful worry, sinful fear, sinful doubt, and sinful self-focus. HOPE is the best solution to those problems.
We will be looking (as part of a three-day cycle) at the HOPE described, defined, and demonstrated in God’s Word. HOPE looks towards the future and sees God’s answered promises, God’s continued presence, and God’s permanent relationship with His people.
HOPE breeds security when we are afraid. HOPE breeds certainty when the future is seems unsure. HOPE breeds comfort when we hurt. HOPE breeds faith. Faith breeds love.