Our Hope in Christ

"Without Christ there is no hope."  - Charles Spurgeon

Hope. What does that word evoke in your mind? Of all the components of life here on this earthly plane, there isn't any with greater strength or meaning than that single word: hope. Without it, life can be very brutal; with it, we can conquer even the most difficult situations.

While passing through the worst storms of life, with the urge to quit growing more intense with each passing moment, it is knowing that hope awaits which keeps us moving on. Even if we were bound with all the happiness we could possibly handle, both emotional and material, without hope it would be greatly compromised.

Hope is a complex emotion. It is also a powerfully fundamental, essential, and universal emotion that should be clearly evident in the Christian. This only makes sense as we identify the Lord Jesus Christ with hope, that is, our hope. I'm not talking about the typical, feel-good type of hope, but the hope in which we believe Christ always keeps his promises.

If we see our hope in Christ then it should respond to His character, attributes, resources, and His throne. Hope that is grounded in Christ will be strong enough to handle the most turbulent incidents in life. Any hope based upon ourselves, or anything else, will be weak and unreliable.

15th century English Puritan preacher Thomas Brooks said, "A Christian will part with anything rather than his hope; he knows that hope will keep the heart both from aching and breaking, from fainting and sinking; he knows that hope is a beam of God, a spark of glory, and that nothing shall extinguish it till the soul be filled with glory."

Christ should be the substance of our hope. Just as sap flows through every branch and leaf of a tree by way of its root system, so should hope permeate us if it is truly founded in Jesus Christ. Knowing that hope, which is based on Him, nourishes both our soul and spirit. And unlike temporal hope, this special, unique hope is the real deal.

Scripture: Romans 12:12; Jeremiah 29:11; Psalm 39:7; Romans 8:24; Psalm 71:5

Prayer: Dear Lord, uphold me according to your promise, that I may live, and let me not be put to shame in my hope!  -Psalm 119:116 

Have a blessed weekend!

Bibi