Christians tend to use words that sound spiritual but do not know the real meaning of the word. Hope is a word everyone uses but do we know what it means?
What do you think Hope is? The first thing I think of when someone hopes, I instantly go to a material hope. Someone may use it in a sentence saying, “I hope I get this one thing I’ve always wanted. Then we have relational Hope. “I hope I will have this girl or guy in my life.”
What is the definition of Hope? The dictionary definition says, “Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. So we can expect us to have that thing, we can expect us to have that relationship. But, The second definition is the one I want to focus on. “a feeling of trust. So when we hope for something, we put our trust in something, expecting something to happen. In the previous paragraph, I mentioned two main types of Hope we have. Material and relational, there is a third one called eternal Hope.
What is eternal hope? Eternal hope is from God. Hope is a gift from God, but what are you trusting in? Jeremiah 29:11 “ For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare[a] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”God wants to give us Hope. When someone gives you a gift, that is typically something you don’t deserve, but they do to show their love. When I was younger, I heard this phrase whenever someone would give someone else a gift. You would ask, “Why did you give me this? You didn’t have to”? They would respond with “Just cause” That’s what God does when he gives us Hope. An all-knowing, powerful God looks at our life and our sin, and he picks us back up when we are at our lowest of lows in desperate need of his grace; all we have to do is accept it. Whenever someone gives you something, it is up to you to accept it.
How to accept the gift? I heard it said in a movie talking about accepting Jesus. “It’s easy, but it isn’t simple.” It’s as simple as A, B, C (A) Admit that Jesus is the son of God, (B) Believe in the Lord Jesus and (C) confess your sin. the Bible says ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So that was the A, B, C’s of salvation, but I’m adding another (C) commit, commit your life to Jesus. So many people who went through the ABC’s of salvation did that at an early age, and they often take it as a check on a list or a one and done thing, and we are free to do whatever we want, but the Bible says we have to die to self Daily. Every day we have to be in communication with God.
Real Hope. Now you know the difference between material hope, ralational hope, and eternal hope. Now it is up to you if you havent already is to accept the free gift so that you can have eternal hope in heaven.
This is so good! Thanks for sharing!