Hope is that thing that gives purpose to your life. It directs your energy into meaningful pursuits and inspires others to seek out the reason for your confidence.
With it you bring the joy of expectancy, without it you carry the gloom of uncertainty. Living without hope is no life at all.
One of the reasons that our church Elders must be “old” (it’s assumed in the name), is because their wisdom comes from lives lived over a good many years. Having had their faith tested by time and temptation, they have developed “endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 1:3). Thus, they lead with the hope of eternity in their hearts and the experience of God’s providence in their work—through good times and bad.
You too can have the blessings of that “hope inspired endurance!”
It doesn’t take much to lose hope in the relationships and workings of this world. Satan doesn’t wait for a new season to sow hatred and discord. A broken heart will shut you down. It will bring all that forward momentum to a sudden halt and renders everything wasted…if you let it.
Instead, if you let him, Jesus will lift your goals and aspirations above the fixed horizon and place your value beyond the finality of this life. Then, with your hope fix on your Saviour in heaven, you claim his promise:
“In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2-3).
John Staiger