Hope!

(Romans 8:25) “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

It is the eye of faith that ignites our hope, we press toward the mark of this high calling of God found in and through our Saviour, Jesus Christ the Lord, and yet we are driven by that which is unseen. We will always look forward as we should in hope, because without hope the people will perish. “Hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what is seen.” In other words once you have attained something it can no longer be hoped for, the objective has been achieved. “Done and Dusted”!

We might hope for a holiday in Cancun Mexico, we have heard good reports and have seen it advertised on TV. We have seen this destination with our eyes via the media and it has ignited a hope in us to save enough money in order to fulfil a dream, a holiday in Mexico! That hope will have a passion strong enough to drive and urge us on to achieve an objective.

Paul makes a suggestion that I want to explore, he says, “But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8:25)

He suggests that we will pursue this hope more aggressively as we have never seen it as some did, as they were literally transported into heaven. That has never been our experience; a cameraman has not shown us footage of heaven, we read and see it with the eyes of faith.

The harder we struggle and work for something the more we will appreciate it. Common sense tells me that if I have surplus cash in the bank and it has come to me through inheritance and I now decide to go to Cancun for a holiday with the money I inherited will I enjoy my holiday? The answer must be yes! I had a desire to visit Mexico and have now achieved my objective even if it came to me easily and without much toil, but when I consider a man who has saved a portion of his hard earned cash over a period of ten years, so that he may have the same holiday experience that I would have. I must conclude he will appreciate his holiday more than I would. This is the point Paul makes in relation to the turmoil we face on earth as we wait for our inheritance. It may well be a free gift, and it is impossible to buy or earn salvation, that is very true, nevertheless our present state, our happiness is not in present possession: We are saved by hope. In this, as in other things, God hath made our present state a state of trial and probation - that our reward is out of sight. Those that will deal with God must deal upon trust. “So now faith, hope, and love abide...” (1Corinthians 13:13)

Our Faith feeds our hope and our hope fuels our love, they all work in conjunction with each other, and they are not independent entities that work to the exclusion of one another. The hope that one day our bodies will be changed from that which is perishing into a body that will never perish and then also to be like our Saviour's eternal body, and then to imagine that we will be sons of God, doing His will without the potential of failure, what a wonderful thought. Hope for the Christian is one of the principal graces. Faith is the evidence and then hope is the expectation of things not seen. Without faith there can be no hope! Faith is like the mother of hope and she must bear fruit which will result in hope, her fruit is hope! So our faith in God and his promises must ignite hope in our hearts and when trails and temptations seem too hard for us to bear, we will then be able to feed off our hope because our faith has fed our anticipation. Faith of what is unseen but yet hoped for. Although heaven and all its glory is unseen with the naked eye, our spirit bears witness with God's spirit and we have an unexplainable groaning that drives us toward heaven, our awareness as children of God to this reality is as real as the clothes I wear; “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” (Roman 8:23)

Who is it then that will make it to heaven? The rest of the text tells us, and I am encouraged by it, regardless of the voices of distraction that lie and endeavourer to deceive...

“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:29-31)

Hope will drive us to believe that if God is for us who can be against us!

This is why we need to remember the broken body and the shed blood of our Saviour, and we must do this as often as we will remember Him and what it meant for Him to pay the price for us as a church but also as individuals to feed off hope. We must also remember that when the Lord died on the cross we were enemies, how much more now will we be saved by His life as children of God. Grab and squeeze tight for these are the promises to all of God’s children. Faith will fuel our hope which in turn will produce endurance. Let us all trust and believe God’s promises, His name forever be praised, Amen.

Signing off

Tyrone