Having Hope

1 Peter 3:15 "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have."

What is this hope that is in us, as Christians?
What is the difference between the hope of the world and the Christian hope?

Worldly hope seems to be more like wishes; it may or may not happen. As we read Scripture, is this the Biblical definition of hope?

Rom 8:24-25 "For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."

Here we see, hope is what saves us. Hope is not seen. Hope is something in the future.

God taught Paul to pray Eph 1:18 "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe."

We see in this prayer the two part hope; the current hope of great power and the future hope of glorious inheritance.

The idea of enlightened is a picture of the sun shining brightly. The prayer is that we would be so saturated with God's hope that it shines out of us so that others see it and experience it.

Trying to pull this together, it seems like God wants us to be so saturated with hope that no matter what happens to us at any given moment, even if it is bad or hard or painful, we have this present and future confidence in the presence of Jesus in us.

Jonathan Edwards said this about Christian hope...
1. Your bad things will turn out for ultimate good. (Like Jesus suffering on the cross.)
2. Your good things can never be taken away from you.
3. The best things are yet to come.

God, I pray that you, the God of hope, will fill us with all joy and peace as we trust in You, so that we may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Rom 15:13

Pastor Chris
 

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