Hope

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. 

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