“For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for it? Romans 8:24

Hope is one of most powerful forces given to us. Hope can truly make difference between life and death and it second only to love.

1 Corinthians 13:13: “And now abideth (continues forever) faith, hope, charity (love), these three; but the greatest is love,”

Hope makes it possible for us to be, believe that good news will come, believe that things will turn around, believe for lost loved ones will come into the sheepfold.

We hope for things planted to bloom, and we hope for the future to be better than the past.

Hope is one of the most dangerous things to ever be lost.

Job in his suffering in the midst of the attack of the devil on his life, said this: “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.” Job 7:6

When we are young time seems completely irrelevant, seems to drag on and on… as we wish our lives away with thoughts and hopes of our exciting life ahead, with no one telling us what to do or how to do it. but soon those days come, and seasons change.

As we age and grow, we realize how fast it really has gone by and it seems with each passing day that invisible clock speeds up, ticking away our mortality.

Teenaged freedom fantasies turn to fearful futuristic thoughts of uncertainty, and making our own decisions reveals its own reality of being responsible for those decisions and the consequences of wrong ones.

Job was completely laid waste by the enemy, and he had no hope in this world.

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” 1 Corinthians 15:19

Our true hope most rest in the afterlife, we can and do certainly have hope in this life, but our main focus must be on the next.

Hope can be and often is the deciding factor between victory of defeat in this life and we can live on this earth for years and years without any hope in today, tomorrow, or next week.

We can be alive on the outside and we can even be truly saved and still be without hope.

We can ask for that hope, we can ask to have the newness of hope renewed in our lives because joy, peace, love, and hope all good things God will give as we ask, believe, and have patience in his timing.

Something that usually does not happen instantly, but you can later on look back over those times and see changes happening slowly each day.

Hope for this life and the hope in the next life that will take us all the way, no matter what the future brings.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” 1 Peter 1:3

We are dead and truly hopeless without Christ and God who had created us, brings us again to himself, giving us the most amazing promise of eternal life.

Resurrected and with Jesus forever, what could ever give us more hope?

I know this has been a running theme, but we need what we need and most of us can always use a little hope.

Titus 2:13: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” 

Have a blessed day.

NBJ 2024/ Rev, N Brown Johnson REVISITED 10/25/2024