A Reason For Hope



“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” (Romans 15:13)

Hope. Seemingly a small word, but to those who have been born again, it is just the opposite; it holds great meaning. There are those in this world who are living without a shred of hope in their lives, simply living from day to day without any expectations of a better tomorrow or a brighter future. But those who have followed the biblical plan of salvation and have God living in their lives, have a reason for hope.

Notice what Paul writes in Colossians 1:27, “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Because of the Spirit of God in our lives, we have hope that we will one day spend eternity with Him. In Paul’s epistle to Titus, he expresses the same sentiment, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” (Titus 2:13)

But aside from the hope of Heaven, Paul tells us that the Word of God offers hope to us as well. “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” (Romans 15:4) There are things in life that could, and would, be discouraging if we did not have the comfort of God’s Word to bring hope to the situation. I have heard it said hundreds, maybe even thousands, of times by saints of God from all walks of life that they don’t know what they would do if they didn’t have God to lean upon in hard times. And I will add my voice to theirs and say that life would indeed be a horrible existence without the strength and hope that we enjoy through the Holy Ghost; it's Christ in us that Paul spoke of.

Let's look at the words of the prophet Jeremiah. “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.” Why? Let's look at the next verse: “For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7-8) The latter verse, which is almost an exact parallel of Psalm 1:3, tells us that even though we will face adversity, God will still be there blessing us, and we still have hope in the midst of difficulty.

But we did not always have this “luxury” if you will. “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:” (Ephesians 2:12) Oh, how glad I am that I have found a reason for hope!

But we must not forget the multiplied millions who are still in the state that we once were; a place without hope. As the apostle Peter writes, we must “…be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” (1 Peter 3:15) Let us tell the lost that they too can find hope in a world of hopelessness.

--J.D. Sutter


All Scripture references are the King James Version.

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