Christian Living

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Hope…possibly one of the greatest and most underused weapons in the Christian’s arsenal. We are all well aware of the importance of faith; both the exercise and the struggle of it. Indeed, without faith we become easy prey for the “roaring lion of lies”. Yet, what is faith without hope. And we certainly are aware of the role of love in our daily walk. It is both the reason and the reality of our lives in Christ. But again, what is that love without the hope that carries it to the inner rooms of our desperate hearts. And yet, we seldom seem to employ it as we take our daily stroll through the “groaning” reality that is our life on this broken planet.

It has been said that a life without hope is a life without Christ. Certainly He is at the very core of our hope; the hope of a better world to come, the hope of dreams come true and wishes fulfilled and of course our “Glorious Hope”…our Lord coming again to usher in the end of tears and the reign of joy. But if we are honest with ourselves we would have to admit that all too often hope is the first causality when life becomes hard and dreams turn to disappointment.

I believe our Enemy spends a great deal of his demonic energy on killing our hope. Why? Without hope we are without strength, without motivation and most importantly without joy (the very stamp of a life in Christ). Without hope we are defenseless. As Spock on “Star Trek” might say, “Our shields are down!” So, (continuing with our “Star Trek” analogy) how do we divert power to those shields? How do we recharge our hope?

We must be sure we are operating with a correct understanding of what hope is. Not what man means when he says the word…what God means! I believe that the word hope has lost its power under our management. For instance, when we say, “I hope I get that job”, what we are really saying is, “I wonder if I’m going to get that job but it would be really great if I did, so I’m hoping.”

Biblical hope, however, is not a mere wish. It is the life-blood of our dreams. It is the proof that needs no evidence, it is the certainty that the battle is won before the first blow is struck, the sweet smell of success before the journey begins and the answered prayer before the prayer is finished. Hope is the sword in the hand of faith. Indeed, it is the very muscle of that faith.

As Christian’s we are expected to grow in our faith and understanding day by day…to move as rapidly as possible from a diet of milk to a more diverse menu. Allowing our hearts to be filled with a growing awareness of this “holy hope” is part of the process. Yet, time after time it is not hope but doubt that we choose as our “swim buddy” (please forgive the Christian Camp analogy).

Not a day goes by where Christ fails to prove His faithfulness; sometimes in small ways…sometimes in miraculous ways that blow us away. He is under no obligation to do this. The Cross should be more than enough for all of us. Yet, time after time and day after day He continues to show us. And still we doubt: “Oh yeah, sure He died for us. Sure He healed my wife last year. Sure He helped us find the resources we needed to pay our bills. Sure He gave us a healthy child and a beautiful home and sure that truck just missed me by inches last week but what about this time…How can I be sure this time?

The open road that leads to blessings new every morning along with an ever-increasing knowledge in our Lord and Holy Brother, Jesus Christ lies stretched out before us. And what are we doing? We’re trying to climb back in the womb with a thumb in our mouth as we wail for another bottle of milk. It’s time to grow up!
The good news is that we already possess all we need to accomplish this task Let me ask you something. How easy would that college class have been if you had all the knowledge of your professor at your fingertips; if you had a tape recorder containing all he knows in your pocket that you could switch on whenever you wanted and the information you were looking for would immediately begin to play back to you? What if the professor’s voice itself answered in your head every time you needed the answer to a question? You would probably advance quite quickly and successfully in that class.

Well, isn’t that exactly what we have? Or to put it more directly, isn’t that exactly what we are ignoring? The Holy Spirit was given to “…teach you all things, and to bring to remembrance all things that (Jesus) has said…”
Bottom line: the Holy Spirit has much to teach you concerning hope …and you are late for class!

The word hope appears in the scriptures 121 times. In the book of Job, a story of a man who lost everything he ever cared about, the word hope appears 15 times, second only to the book of Psalms. In contrast, the word despair appears just three times in the entire bible. Oh yes, we have much to learn about hope. My purpose here, however, is not to teach you about hope or impress you with my deep knowledge on the subject. My purpose is to light a fire under you strong enough to take your eyes off the mountains in your life and put them on the mountain-mover; to help you realize that all you hope for is already on its way. In fact, you may already be in possession of it.

Paul says in Romans 8:25 that if we hope for what we do not see, then we have the patience to wait for it. Hope is not wishing something will happen. It is confidence that it will happen. It is a confidence so strong that it gives birth to patience (that ever-elusive quality we all long for).

So, let’s go…it’s time to get up! It’s time to get out of bed and get to school. The bell has rung and the professor is waiting. Oh, look! Here’s a little something from your Father. It seems He wants to “…give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of (Jesus), having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling.”

Wow! What a great “Back to School” gift!

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