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CHRISTIAN LIVING TODAY
Not only is hope a good word, it is a life-saving word. Hope is vital to our well-being.
Stop and take a moment to think about your hope. What is your personal definition of hope? Where is your hope placed — in, or upon? What do you hope for? You get the drift.
Webster’s Dictionary (1913) defines hope as: A desire combined with expectation; a thing desired — to desire with belief in the possibility of obtaining.
One who, or that which, gives hope, furnishes ground of expectation, or promises desired good — this describes biblical hope.
That which is hoped for; an object of hope — more like a wish, such as more income or a new home.
God designed people with a need for hope.
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12).
Biblical hope is unique and specific. It is one of the three main elements of Christian character,
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and it remains throughout eternity. Hope does not pass away (1 Corinthians 13:13).
“God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose … in order that … we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us … This hope we have as an anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 6:17-19a).
New Testament Greek is a picture language. Hope, as it is used here, pictures a small inlet, quiet and not directly exposed to the upheavals of open waters. A boat tethered there is secure, even if or when it is out on rough seas. Its safety is firmly held by the anchor, tethered in the quiet inlet.
Jesus, our Hope, is the anchor for our soul.
Hope is our anchor, our safeguard. It secures us in a quiet, safe place. It anchors the part of us not dissolved at death, our being designed for eternal and everlasting life.
This hope is sure, firm, certain and trustworthy.
Christ is the actual object of the believer’s hope, for His second coming is the “hope of glory,” the “blessed hope” (1 Timothy 1:1; Colossians 1:27; Titus 2:13). Christ gives us a living hope, a hope neither frail nor perishable (1 Peter 1:3).
Friends, maybe it’s time for all of us to review our hope.
May our hope be firmly rooted in Jesus Christ. Until next week, Anita Onarecker, an Elgin resident, author of “Divine Appointment: Our Journey to the Bridge” and minister to women and adults, earned a Master of Christian Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2007.
