Hope is four letters that can change our lives.
Hope can be ‘I hope I get the present I’ve been hinting for at Christmas’ or ‘I hope I get the promotion I applied for’.
… or …
In the Greek it defines hope as
“the confident expectation of what God has promised and its strength is in His faithfulness.”
We know the Bible contains 1,189 chapters by 40 different authors. The Bible is full of the promises the Hope of God.
Romans 15:4 “Everything that was written in the past was written for our instruction so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.”
You know the story of how Job lost his stock, servants and worse still, his own children yet through all this tragedy Job says in chapter 13 verse 15 “yet I will hope in Him.” It is said that Job’s time of isolation was 9 months and he lived another 140 years after that where he was able to enjoy his new family, including my guess many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Now I personally don’t want to live that long, but like Job I acknowledge that my only hope is looking to the giver of Hope.
Psalm 42:5 “Why my soul are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me: put your hope in God for I will yet praise him my saviour and my God.”
Romans 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.”
Deuteronomy 31:6 “Our hope is assured. He will never leave us or forsake us.”
How do we get this Hope? By reading and re-reading the Word. His Word. Spending time with the Giver of Hope – Abba Father. May I suggest that you read a chapter and look for the Hope that is found there.
God is good,
Jan