Life is more enjoyable when you have something to look forward to. It’s like looking forward to Christmas or your birthday or a vacation. Every believer has something to look forward to as well; it is what we call hope. The hope of God’s promise to give us everlasting life.
This big snow helps give us hope that the horrible drought might end and our wildfires this coming summer will be greatly diminished. I’ve been praying for snow and God answered my prayers.
Jesus’s death on the cross gives us the ultimate hope of an eternal life living in the love of God. All we have to do is believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and live our lives immersed in that belief.
1 Thessalonians 1:3 (KJV) – Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father.
God’s grace through Jesus Christ gives us hope. God’s mercy gives us hope. We don’t earn or deserve either of these but God loves us so much that His grace and mercy are always there for us.
1 Timothy 1:1-2 (KJV) – Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope; Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
From a sermon by Johnny A Palmer, Jr.:
G. F. Watt has a famous painting entitled Hope. It pictures a poor woman against the world. Her eyes are bandaged so she cannot see. In her hand is a harp, but all the strings are broken except one.
Those broken strings represent her shattered expectations, her bitter disappointments. But that last string is the string of hope! She strikes it and a glorious melody rings forth.
In the midst of shattered dreams and bitter disappointments we still have the Lord Jesus Christ – our string of hope.
GF Watt's Painting "Hope"
How many times have I felt hopeless, depressed, and lost? A great many times. But eventually, I sense the Holy Spirit’s voice, speaking to me of God’s unending love, forgiveness, and mercy. Without the hope of Jesus Christ, where would we be? I am so blessed and thankful for God’s love and the hope he promises for those of us who believe in Him and His Word.
From Billy Graham:
“For
the believer there is hope beyond the grave, because Jesus Christ has opened
the door to heaven for us by His death and resurrection.”
“Easter always brings hope to all of us. For the Christian, the Cross tells us that God understands our suffering, for He took upon Himself at the Cross all of our sins and all of our failures and all of our sufferings. Our Lord, on that cross, asked the question, “Why?” “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” And he received his answer, he knew. To redeem the world, to save you and me from our sins, to give us assurance that if we died we’re going to heaven. He was saying from the cross, I love you and I know the heartaches and the sorrows and the pain that you feel.
Easter points us beyond the tragedy of the Cross to the hope of the empty tomb. It tells us that there is hope for eternal life for Christ has conquered death. It also tells us that God has triumphed over evil and death and hell. This is our hope and it can be your hope as well.”
Hope is found in the promises God has given us – promises of freedom from sin. We can find so much hope in Scripture through the gift of eternal life made possible through His son, Jesus Christ. No matter what trials, temptations or pain we may suffer, we can always hold onto the hope God extends to us.
Here I am Lord:
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