Hope is a very powerful, adrenalin filled, audacious, motivational and inspirational expectancy. It’s why people get back up and keep going, when life knocks them down.
Hope is why the 1992 Buffalo Bills came back to beat the Houston Oilers 41-38 in overtime, after being down 35 to 0 at halftime. And why last year’s Kansas City Chiefs came back to beat the Houston Texans 51-31 after being down 24-0 in the 1st half. I remember watching both games thinking, well it’s over. But it wasn’t over. It was just halftime.
Hope is something everyone wants, needs, can have and is what the Church can offer people in Jesus Christ. But hope in the Bible is different than hope in the world. Worldly hope is an uncertainty of not knowing. “I hope the bus shows up. I hope the plane is on time” etc. Biblical hope is the certainty of knowing God will always show up on time and in time, because biblical hope is based on faith and trust in what God says in the Bible.
Hebrews 11:1 says “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen.” Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing the word of God. So faith, hope and the Bible are inextricably tied together, in certain expectations of God, such as eternal life after death and everyday blessings in and through Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:5 says “Since we have been Justified through faith, we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained Access by faith into this Grace in which we now stand. We boast in the Hope of the glory of God as we glory in our sufferings, because we Know that Suffering produces Perseverance, perseverance, Character and character, Hope.And Hope does not disappoint because God’s Love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
The certainty of Christian hope is knowing our sins are forgiven by the love and grace of God in Jesus Christ, and that we have peace with God and direct access to God every day, because we have God’s Holy Spirit within us, which is what it means to be “Born Again” by God’s Spirit (John 3, & 20).
Because God’s Holy Spirit is within us, we can do, overcome, endure and accomplish all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens us. Which is why Christians can and should get back up and keep going when life knocks them down and come out of the locker rooms of their lives to win in the end, every day and forever in eternity.
This doesn’t mean life will always be easy. Life is sometimes very hard for seasons or stretches of time. But as Christians we have a spiritual, adrenalin filled, powerful, motivational, and inspirational hope and expectancy in Jesus Christ that never lets us down or disappoints. Which is also what we have to offer people in Jesus Christ, every day and into eternity; the audacity of Hope that beats fear, in Jesus’ name!
Blessings
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