I’ve heard it said that hope is the eager and confident
expectation of something good. I like
that definition. However, for many of
us, hope seems more related to chance than a sure thing. “I sure hope I get that raise, I hope my kids
do well in school, I hope I have enough money for retirement”, these statements
don’t sound like I’m eagerly expecting something good. I think the problem lies in our definition of
the word hope. Hope isn’t related to
chance. In Hebrew’s 6:19 it says that we
have hope as an anchor for the soul.
Hope is meant to keep us focused on the big picture. In the Old Testament Israel’s hope was in
God’s promises. Those promises became
anchors for them in difficult times and helped them to overcome the obstacles
they faced. Even when they were in
captivity they would hang on to the promises of deliverance and those promises
were, no doubt, a huge part of how they were able to make it out of such
difficult times. In the New Testament
our hope isn’t primarily found in the promises as much as it is found in the Person. Our hope is Jesus. Too often we place our anchor in the hope
that our circumstances will change and when they don’t change or seemingly will
never change, we get discouraged. We live
in what the Bible calls hope deferred. That
verse goes on to say that a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. The word desire can be broken up to mean “of
the father”, de meaning of and sire meaning father. Our hope is found in Him. He really is Christ in us the hope of
glory. Even in the Old Testament model,
the promise was really meant to lead people to the presence. No matter what we are going through or what
we have been through His presence will always be an anchor for our soul. It is the one true hope that we have.
That's the View From Here...
