Encouragement

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Perhaps people don't know what to hope in. Maybe that's why we hear so little about this important word. What do we need to hope for? We have a complete salvation in Jesus Christ, so we don't need to hope for what we already have. We have the Holy Spirit living inside us, so we need not hope for His presence.

As a matter of fact, you may think that any Christian who knows the promises of God would not hope at all, for he should realize and accept those promises.

Yet the Bible says hope remains i.e. "But now abide faith, hope, and love...."

What we need to do at this point, is to look at what we think hope means, and what the Bible says hope means.

When a person says he hopes something will happen, what he usually means is he wants to see that thing come to pass, but he is not sure it will. To us, hope means the desire for something, but without a complete confidence of it happening. There is always an element of uncertainty when we speak of hope.

According to the Bible, hope means something quite different. The Greek word for hope in the New Testament is elpis, which means, to anticipate with pleasure, or to have expectation and confidence.

I like this alternative definition of biblical hope: What has been is NOT what shall be !

Are you in some trial right now? Is there a big Goliath in your path threatening to grind you into the dust? Has some family or financial trouble left you weak and exhausted? If you are in any difficulty at all, the good news here is to hope in the Lord.

Peter wrote to the believers in Asia Minor that they should "always be prepared to give an answer to any one who asks them to give a reason for the hope that is in them" (1 Peter 3:15). That implies two things.

One is that Christians ought to be known as hopeful people. If an unbeliever watches you for a while and then asks about something, at least part of what he asks about should be your hope. Our hope should show. It should show in joy (Romans 12:12) and love (Colossians 1:4–5) and boldness (2 Corinthians 3:12) and endurance (2 Thessalonians 1:3).

The other thing that Peter implies is that that there are reasons for Christian hope. It is a reasonable hope. It may have looked irrational when Abraham felt strong confidence that he would be the father of many nations even though he was too old and his wife was barren. But it was not irrational! There was good reason to hope. And we should know why we hope.

Not an "I'm not sure" hope, or an "I'd like to have hope but I'm not good enough" type of hope either, but a "confident anticipation with pleasure" hope. That's the type of hope the Scriptures speak of.

When the Bible speaks of hope, there is no room for uncertainty. There is only a complete assurance, an eager looking forward.

This may trouble you at first. You may be thinking to yourself that this is the type of hope you want, but just can't quite get. If that is what you're thinking, then you must be putting the burden of hope upon yourself.

Hope is not a positive mind-set to psych yourself into. Hope is something God produces in us. It is His job to give us hope. Would you like to see your hope transformed from one with uncertainty to one with an expectation and confidence; an anticipation with pleasure?

Look carefully at this next verse, and let the full meaning sink into your spirit: 2 Thessalonians 2:16–17,

"Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good HOPE THROUGH GRACE, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word."

How can we have this good hope? Another way to ask the question would be, WHAT IS OUR HOPE BASED ON? WHAT IS THE ROOT OR THE FOUNDATION OF OUR HOPE? God's grace.

Our hope is rooted in the grace of God. It is based on the grace of God. If God were not a gracious God, we would have no hope. We could cross our fingers. We could have strong desires and wishes. We could even perhaps decide, by sheer will-power, to be positive thinkers and thus make the best of our brief and uncertain lives. But there could be no talk of moral certainty about good things in the future. There could be no confident expectation that all things will work out in a wonderfully happy way for us.

You see, when we get into a difficult situation we tend to become introspective and totally problem conscious. In that frame of mind, we often assume it's up to us to try and work things out but we will never solve anything by relying upon our own strength or ability. Many of you know that.

You don't look for an answer from within yourself. You are looking to the Lord. You hope in Him.

But there is still that uncertainty in your hope. Even though we say we are looking to the Lord, sometime the truth is we are not looking at His grace. Without grace there is uncertainty, because you may wonder if God really cares enough to deliver you.

You may wonder if He is holding back His hand of power due to some fault or shortcoming He has noticed in you.

When you say you are looking to the Lord, but you aren't looking at His grace, then you really are not looking to the Lord. What you are doing is looking at your trial and hoping with uncertainty that God will see your trial too.

When you truly look to God, you will see His grace, and hope will be born in your heart. Grace will give you the hope, the vision you need. Grace will bring you out of the narrow realm of time and space tribulation into the vast storehouse of God's riches.

Grace gives you a "good hope", as the Bible says. Grace points you to Jesus Christ, and to His complete, committed, and unconditional love for you. Grace says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). Instead of hoping without confidence, you will know grace is God's sure word of deliverance to you, and you will anticipate with pleasure.

The answer God is bringing will become more real to you than the trial itself, and you will rejoice! You will have confidence! You will be expecting the answer any moment because you have seen grace, and grace gives you hope! Grace is hope purified. Can you see the important role hope is to play in our life? Now abide faith, hope, and love. We hope because God's promise is greater than any tribulation. Whether it be the world, the flesh, or the devil, it doesn't matter, because we have seen grace. God's grace saved us, justified us, redeemed us, and God's grace plants hope in our heart.

And Hebrews 11:1 says: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for...(before Abraham's faith can reach out to receive the promise of a heir, He first pointed Abraham to the stars to give him a visual aid for hope to spring forth inside him)

Whenever you get down, lift up your head, behold the grace of God, and you will be transformed into His image. There is one more verse I would like to share with you. This is an exhortation and I believe you will be able to recognize its importance now.

"Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1st Peter 1:13).

Our hope is to be completely, 100%, fixed upon grace. When we place our hope upon God's grace, then our hope becomes real Bible hope, that anticipation with pleasure. If you hope in anything other than grace, then you will only be insuring the return of uncertainty to your life.

At first glance you may only consider this verse as a reference to the second coming of Jesus. But look at it more carefully. Think of it in terms of having meaning for your life right now. What is it saying?

Real hope means you are looking to Jesus, and when you have a revelation of Him, as He is, grace will be brought to you, because that is what His true essence is. Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Hope means more than looking to the Lord. Real hope means you know what God is like. You have that confidence and expectation because you know your hope in the Lord is hope in His grace which will never let you down.

How would you like to have a revelation of Jesus today? Receive His grace, walk in it, live in it, and base your life upon it. Do this and Jesus will be revealed to you because grace is His heart. Once you know Jesus in this way, you will find hope to be a very powerful and relevant force in your life, for hope means you know God's grace will always bring you triumphantly through all things, no matter how great or small. Grace produces steadfast hope, and hope enables you to see the hand of God for you in your darkest moment.

Let me close with this one exhortation. Why are you downcast, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God. For he is a God of matchless grace. He elects by grace. He calls by grace. He sanctifies by grace. He sustains faith by grace. And he will glorify you by grace. You cannot earn it or deserve it or merit it. It is free. Believe it. Rest in it. Delight in it. And it is yours.

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