But the best that I can hope is that this has just opened a window, and that as you look through it you are seeing one thing how superior is Jesus Christ to all else, and how superior is the dispensation into which we have come, and how superior are all the resources at our disposal to all that ever was before!
Hope in Christ
It was God’s purpose to redeem us through the blood of Jesus and to forgive our sins, and He purposed this heavenly blessing in accordance with the riches of His grace.
God willed to break down the wall of separation between His holy Self and fallen sinners, that we, who are the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory.
We may be surrounded by trouble, but our hope in Christ is guaranteed by God.
I pray... that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints. (Ephesians 1:18 NIV)
We can never hope to overcome them unless we remember that there is in the presence of God for us a Savior who suffered the full agony of these things, but accepted them as part of the cup which the Father had given Him to drink.
It seems today as if a set is being made in some way to remove all the offence and all the difference, and to get us near to people without anything that clashes, in the hope of winning them.
When death has exceeded every other evil power sin, suffering, sorrow, and destruction, then God's unique and exclusive answer is the only hope, and the one answer.
There are so many of the Lord's people today over whom Satan is lording it; lording it along the line of accusation, bringing them under a sense of condemnation and judgment, robbing them of their peace, of their assurance, rest, hope; and you will find these people are everlastingly talking about their own short-comings, their sinfulness; they are forever circling round themselves, all that they are that they would not be, all that they are not that they would be.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 NIV)
We may in His death have to lay our treasure in the dust, we may have to let go much that is very precious to us of hope and expectation and ambition and outlook.
Who will deliver me from this body of death?Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. § Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.He who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works. § Not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. § “This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest,” and, “this is the refreshing.”
When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. § Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. § Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.
Thus says the Lord: “I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after Me in the wilderness.” § I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. § I will visit you and perform My good word toward you … For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. § I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause—who does great things, and unsearchable, marvelous things without number. § Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
Christ … loved the church and gave Himself for her, … that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. § Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.The peace of God … surpasses all understanding. § Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body.May our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. § [God] will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has given to us. § If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
I am the Lord … they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me. § Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. § You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.
He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved. § I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed.God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus.
God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. § In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. § To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” § Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.
It is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory … give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him … that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. § Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death.My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. § He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear.
This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” § Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. § The blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. § Saved by His life.Our … Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. § As He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ … has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. § In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him. § Of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.The promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.The just shall live by faith. § Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. § Our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases. § With God nothing will be impossible… Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.
I [Moses] stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord; for you were afraid. § There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth. § Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. § Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.
Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. § [Have] boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh. § We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. § For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
He indeed was … manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God … that your faith and hope are in God.Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing!
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. § The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. § You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. § Having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed.
The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. § We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.
Arise and depart, for this is not your rest. § Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. § There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. § Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. § One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind … I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! § If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. § If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard.Little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. § He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
The fellowship of His sufferings. § Rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. § For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. § If children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. § Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.
For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. § Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.Because I live, you will live also. § If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
Now see that I, even I, am He, and there is no God besides Me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver from My hand. § I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. § “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfort to her. § As a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. § Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. § Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.
The Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. § Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.His truth shall be your shield and buckler.God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.The faithful God … keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments. § All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies. § Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God … who keeps truth forever.
The hope which is laid up for you in heaven. § If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. § We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God. § Whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. § No one should be shaken by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.Rejoice in the Lord always.
Again I will say, rejoice! § The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. § Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. § Through [Him] also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you. § Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.Shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?
Now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. § We also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. § You have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven … Do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.
For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. § Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts.
But let us who are of the day be sober. § Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God. § Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to hear. § For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.Jacob said to his household … “Let us arise and go up to Bethel; and I will make an altar there to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and has been with me in the way which I have gone.” § Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications.
The longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.For this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life. § Whatever things were written before were writ- ten for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? § Rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm.
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going. § Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ. § Whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord. § I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. § Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business? § Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.Brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble. § We desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. § Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
Surely the wrath of man shall praise You; with the remainder of wrath You shall gird Yourself. § The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes. § When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope.
My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning—yes, more than those who watch for the morning. § I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you, and will say, “Destroy!” § Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.What then shall we say to these things?
And I said, “My strength and my hope have perished from the Lord.” § Awake!
Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance. § We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.
Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. § Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breast- plate of righteousness … above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. § God has said: “I will dwell in them and walk among them.
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way. § My delight was with the sons of men. § The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him, in those who hope in His mercy. § “They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “on the day that I make them My jewels.
The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. § [He] Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. § As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. § There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.THE LORD OUR RIGHTOUSNESS.
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. § Your life is hidden with Christ in God.Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed.
This is the true God and eternal life.We … do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. § The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, … give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.
You, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel. § That you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless. § Be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ.Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever.
Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. § But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. § Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory … give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.
For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. § The Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day.You are God’s field, you are God’s building. § Christ [is] a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. § You also, as living stones, are … a holy priesthood.“They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “on the day that I make them My jewels.” § And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. § The glory of His inheritance in the saints.
For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word … It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. § Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.
His branches shall spread; his beauty shall be like an olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon. § Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.
The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good inheritance.“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I hope in Him!”Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.
He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.What you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be.Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. . . .
This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud… And I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth. § [It is] ordered in all things and secure. § That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have some strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.We declare to you glad tidings—that promise which was made to the fathers.
Remember the word to Your servant, upon which You have caused me to hope. § O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me!Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. § You know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spoke concerning you.
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? § The Lord has sworn and will not relent.God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. § Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. § He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. § All the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is. § Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. § [Look] for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You knew my path. § He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. § Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. § You have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat.Who is a rock, except our God? § They shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. § Uphold me according to Your word, that I may live; and do not let be ashamed of my hope. § This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil.
There is none righteous, no, not one… There is none who does good, no, not one. § There is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. § How can he be pure who is born of a woman?Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me… Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.The Lord… has put away your sin; you shall not die. § Whom He justified, these He also glorified. § We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. § If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel.Walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.
This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” § If we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus. § Heaven must receive [Him] until the times of restoration of all things. § When He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe.The whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.
Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. § Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. § Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. § Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected.Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. § For the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
The days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. § Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. § I am the Lord, I do not change. § Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself. § The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope.Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. § Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!
Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent. § Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
It is better trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. § Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. § He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city for a dwelling place. § Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel.
But there is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared … O Israel, hope in the Lord; for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is abundant redemption.
And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me. § A High Priest … holy, harmless, undefiled.We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. § The prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.Whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.
For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide. § By the word of Your lips, I have kept away from the paths of the destroyer. § Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.We have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. § That we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
When shall I come and appear before God? § Make haste, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. § Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. § God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. § Whom having not seen you love.He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming quickly.” Amen.
A horse is a vain hope for safety; neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. § We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors … Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope.
That Rock was Christ. § Simon Peter … said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” … “On this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” § Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.Full assurance of faith … Hope without wavering. § Faith, with no doubting.
Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness. § For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only does wondrous things!
Establish Your word to Your servant, who is devoted to fearing You … So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in Your word … Remember the word to Your servant, upon which You have caused me to hope … Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage … The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver … Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.
Your faithfulness endures to all generations.God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus.Exceedingly great and precious promises.
We … glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. § Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. § My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord! § It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. § Shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?Truly my soul silently waits for God; from Him comes my salvation … My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.
If you ask anything in My name, I will do it … And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. § There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. § When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven.Brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way …, let us draw near.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. § Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.Rejoice in the Lord always.
Again I will say, rejoice! § They departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. § The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. § Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls—yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” … Then David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone; and he slung it … So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone.No king is saved by the multitude of an army; a mighty man is not delivered by great strength … Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy. § Both riches and honor come from You, and You reign over all.
They lie down alike in the dust, and worms cover them.My flesh … will rest in hope. § After my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God. § The Lord Jesus Christ … will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.Lord, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. § So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. § There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. § The first man Adam became a living being. § The spirit of the sons of men … goes upward.While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord … We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. § With Christ, which is far better. § I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.
But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.Arise, shine; for your light has come!
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you.Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. § Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you your- selves be like men who wait for their master.
And thus we shall always be with the Lord.The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you … When in their trouble [Israel] turned to the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them.For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Their cry has been, 'My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God....' Their longing after God all but consumed them; it propelled them onward and upward to heights toward which less ardent believers look with and entertain no hope of reaching.
They wait for some vague time when they hope they will have reached a more satisfactory position in regard to the lusts of the flesh, and will feel more confident about attempting a walk in the Spirit.
As in the apostolic days so now the desire exists for the manifestation of the Spirit in marvelous ways; but a life sober, righteous, holy, lived in the hope of the glory to come, is the more excellent way of the Spirit's manifestation and undeniable proof of His indwelling.
Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace (2 Thess. 2:16).
Always guarded by the power of God through faith.... In such a hope keep on rejoicing, although for a little while you must be sorrow-stricken with various trials (1 Peter 1:5, 6, Wms.).
To the believer who has been taught by the Holy Spirit something of his own utter, inbred sinfulness, it comes as a message from God full of hope and encouragement.
The power of the world, the spirit of its literature, and temptations of business and pleasure, all unite to make up a religion in which it is sought to combine a comfortable hope for the future with the least possible amount of sacrifice in the present. -A.M.
Our hope for freedom from the power of sin is not Christ plus my efforts,' but Christ plus my receiving.' To receive victory from Him is to believe His Word that solely by grace He is, this moment, freeing us from the dominion of sin.
Non-dispensational teachers have endeavored to bring over the many promises of the physical and material aspects of kingdom salvation into the present dispensation, giving hope of material prosperity and physical health, as well as political peace.
Have not some given up hope that words like I have been crucified with Christ,' the world is crucified to me,' baptized into His death,' dead unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus' should have become truly intelligible and helpful?
When circumstances seem impossible, when all signs of grace in you seem at their lowest ebb, when temptation is fiercest, when love and joy and hope seem well nigh extinguished in your heart, then rest, without feeling and without emotion, in the Father's faithfulness; abide in the fact that He loves you infinitely, and even now is working in you faithfully; and honor Him, and put the enemy to flight by taking to yourself the words of Job: Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.' I have prayed for thee' (says the One who ever lives to make intercession for us) that thy faith fail not.' -D.T.
Does our confidence in the Father become shaken and our hope prove uncertain?
When we have no word from the Lord except to wait and everything seems to be at a standstill, does the certainty of hope remain undimmed? -A.H.
Faith possesses all things, and hope stretches on to the fulness of the possession, yet in no restless mood, for patience sits by the side of hope in the believer's soul, and teaches him to wait for the glory of the Father.
If we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.' (Rom. 8:25). -H.F.W.
The Ten Commandments require no life of prayer, no Christian service, no evangelism, no missionary outreach, no Gospel preaching, no life and walk in the Spirit, no union with the Lord Jesus Christ, no fellowship of saints, no hope of salvation, and no hope of heaven. -L.S.C.
One Foundation
There is but one foundation on which true faith can be built. 'Examine yourself,' Paul encourages, 'examine yourself to see if you be in the faith…' 2 Corinthians 13:5 'Faith is the substance of the hope set before us in Christ….
Substance of Hope
Faith is the substance of the hope set before us in Christ..
Universal Episode
Where love is wounded to its core; where trust is tried to its bitter limits; where hope seems dashed to the stony ground; where joy seems ground to the dust of ashes; where patience screams forgive!
That 'Last Night' hope seemed dashed to the stony ground.
Loving Words
As she stood in anguish and pain, gazing at her dying son, a sword indeed pierced through her own aching soul, leaving her heart bloodied and bruised, and probably bereft of hope. Despite the sins of all humanity that weighed so heavily upon the shoulders of our blessed Lord; despite the bitter pain, affliction and anguish He bore, for your transgressions and for mine, He saw His own dear mother, in her deep and gaping grief, and His own breaking heart of compassion reached out, in love, to her.
A Godly Love
In His heartache, torment, suffering, and distress, He stretched His arms of love – a reach from eternity past to eternity future. The anguish, desolation, loneliness, and rejection poured on Him was the totality of humanities amassed evil – and the outflow from Him was forgiveness; hope; compassion – love. All Satan’s tempestuous fury was concentrated and condensed into one brief breath of time. All the Father’s undiluted wrath and rage was poured out in full measure upon His sinless head – and in the midst of this, He called out, Woman, behold thy son!
Dashed Expectation
Hope must have died in their breast as they saw His precious body bound in grave-clothes.
Though expectations may fail of their realisation, and the blossom of hope may fall and die – still cling to Him, the Lover of your soul Remember, our deepest disappointments can often prove to be the richest of blessings in His sweet timing – only rest in His arms of love.
But true hope in Christ the Lord explodes into true glory of unimaginable joy – a true acceptance of the father-heart of love, births into inconceivable blessings.
The Faith of Hope
It is always so when faith’s hope appears to perish through our imperfect understanding... for God exchanges immortal beauty for the ashes of despair.
Hope of Faith
Bring Him the very finest and richest offering of loving trust and trusting love..
His living streams bring the glorious hope of salvation to all who drink of Him, just as redemptive salvation flooded into the life of the woman of Samaria, the moment that she believed His Word and obeyed His command.
Spiritual Eye
When through the workings out of His purpose in the depth of your inner being, He takes you to an end of yourself, and gives you your own Job experience… then He will draw you with His cords of love to the very extremity of your hope and you will say – in the understanding of your own 'Job' experience….
STUDY - God, All I Need
Lay hold on the hope set before us: which we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and entering into that within the veil.Hebrews 6:19-20
Secured in Christ
Christ and His coming kingdom is the hope set before us.
Satan seeks to shipwreck the soul who is not securely anchored in Christ – but the Anchor of the soul is indeed sure and steadfast… so we must lay hold on that hope set before us – for our hope is secure in Him.
Our Eternal Rock
Peace – Be Still – Rest in Him and Hope in Him.
We are going through the process of sanctification – and in this life we must lay hold of that hope that is set before us – by abiding in Him, resting in Him – relying on Him to keep us amidst the storms of life - trusting Him, day by day by day.
Future Hope
Our anchor was secured heaven at the point of salvation, but in this life, we also have a responsibility.
We are to mature in the faith or we will find ourselves drifting amidst the storms of life. In this life, we must lay hold of the hope that is set before us – or shipwreck is inevitable.
If we lay hold on any other 'hope' we will be ruined – eternally saved but having lost a precious reward.
The hope set before us is to gain a kingly inheritance – the hope of reward that is given to that good and faithful servant.
Secure in Christ
Are you anchored on Christ and is your hope in Him or have you fastened your anchor to the things of this life? Will your anchor truly hold in the tumultuous tempest of this life by resting and remaining in Christ, body, soul, and spirit?
Will you lay fast hold of that hope set before you?
Will you anchor your hope on Christ, or will you allow the pain, problems, and disappointments of life to overwhelm you?
All We Need
God in very truth is my Friend and my Comforter. He is in my Companion and Courage, my Joy and my Hope, My Defence and Defender – my Provider and Benefactor.
I will be PATIENT, LordTrustful and stillI will not doubt Thy WordMy hope fulfilHow can I perish, clinging to Thy side?My Comforter, my Saviour my Guide – and my Patience
There are many complex vicissitudes for the sojourner through this mortal coil, victory and defeat; honour and humiliation; hope and despair; respect and scorn.
He both defends me from the externals of life that pervade my peace and hope – and His truth becomes my defence when the world’s finger points accusingly at me.
Let your reflected light so SHINE before saved and unsaved men of the world (and so reflect the beauties of the Lord – the lovely Jesus Christ) Let your reflected light so shine before men that the people of the world may SEE your good works (not the works of your own flesh or the Law which are produced through self-effort) Let your reflected LIGHT so Shine before men that the people of the world may see your good works (the works which came from Christ) Christ Who is the Light of the World and Christ, Who is the Hope of the ages…until CHRIST be formed in you……Let your reflected light so shine before men that the people of the world may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Study - GOD, All I Need
Hope Deferred
Hope is one of the abiding essentials in the plan of God - along with faith and love.
How often we should remind ourselves that 'hope in Him' should be preeminent – and yet how often I tend to become downcast when things just seem to go wrong… when friends fail or misunderstand; when life’s problems just seem to multiply.
Hope deferred makes the heart sick – sometimes to the point of failure and death.
Hope lost is the saddest expression of the human heart – often leading to despair.
Fulfilled hope warms the heart, delights the soul, and makes the countenance shine.
Hope Realised
J.C.
Hope is the anticipation, with the possibility of realisation.
Hope is the chord which strikes pleasant desires for the future.
Hope is everyone’s sunshine, the rainbow in the storm.
Hope is the silver lining to the present cloud.
Hope is a star set in the firmament of our lives to brighten and lighten – to show the way and encourage us along.
Hope differs in magnitude and brightness according to the occasion.
Hope is cordial for the desponding.
Hope is a chain with many links.
Tokens of Hope
But how God loves one that is cheerful and gracious, thankful and long-suffering.
How precious are the many tiny pearls of hope – scattered through the Word of God.
Precious promises and messages of hope, from the God and Giver of all hopefulness.
Hope thou in God, the psalmist reminds us: hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him Psalm 42:5 Who is the health of my countenance.
Paul expounds this cherished word – “hope” in his famous chapter on love..
and now abideth faith, hope, and love 1 Corinthians 13:13– hope being one of the three precious graces.
A Practical Training
But it is not a hope in fanciful feelings and imagined ideals… but hope in Him.
Hope in Him invigorates us to rise above life’s obstacles and discouragements.
Hope in Him prods us to progress to the uppermost pinnacle of the Hill Difficulty.
Hope encourages us to press forward despite critical knock-backs that we receive.
Hope disciplines us to press on to the mark for the high calling of God in Him.
Hope trains us to submit to long and arduous child-training and patient-endurance.
Hope recognises chastisement as the love of the Father toward His child..
A Powerful Promise
Every great achievement for the Lord has the dynamic of hope underpinning it..
so shred the encumbrances that mar hope in your life – however, they are clad - whether a covering of fear; a cloak of disappointment, or a stronghold of Satan.
If we permit ourselves to weaken in hope..
Love fails and faith falls, if hope is deferred or if hope is lost.
So day by day and minute by minute let us hope in the Lord..
Oh, that the God of hope may so supply us with the brimming fullness of Himself – that we will be complete in Him – with all joy and peace in believing – and that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Hymn of Hope
Through the night of doubt and sorrowOnward goes the pilgrim band,Singing songs of expectation,Marching to the promised land.
One the object of our journey,One the faith which never tires,One the earnest looking forward,One the hope our God inspires.
And many who respond to such schemes become more embittered and disillusioned and thus another layer of mistrust is added, until a soul is choked of hope.
Tool of Satan
Fear is the great tool of the enemy to neutralise God’s love forming in us. Fear is the corrupting seed of doubt, that blossoms into a thorn-bush of unbelief. Fear is the greatest thunderous storm-cloud, that eclipses the Son of His love. Fear is the emotion that has too readily strangled the hope of the Christian. Fear too often has established its cancerous tendrils, round the throat of believers. Fear is the greatest tool of the enemy to neutralise God’s love forming in us. And although the righteous fear of God in the context of Scripture is pure and good – the perfect love of our thrice perfect God-of-love casts out the ugly fear of the devil.
Love or Fear; Hope or Despair; Trust or Unbelief; God or the Devil?
And may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, Who loves us, and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.
Faith is not hoping against hope that something is going to happen, nor is it hiding behind an ‘airy-fairy’ belief system.
YAHAL – In Psalm 119 we read: remember Your word to Your servant, in which You have made me HOPE.. (yahal) and this too refers patient endurance as we wait for God in the trials of life and trust His promises.
We must TRUST (yahal) the Lord as we patiently endure and hope in Him.
Christians today, in the church age should know, understand and apply this royal law of Christ, as we abide in Him and He in us, for: it is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Mountain Top to Valley
And a crescendo of hope and excitement builds as we pass from the ministration of Law and death to the ministration of life, freedom and grace.
But He lifted me out of the miry clay and raised me up out of the putrid filth and scum of my life – and clothed me in righteousness and put a ring on my finger, and hope in my heart.
Meditate on the mystery of the triad of his gifts: faith, hope and love – and you will discover the all-inclusive, all-comprehensive depth of His love – His deep love for you.
And sometimes He will take us to the extremity of hope to test our faith in Him, for sanctification is: “being conformed into the image and likeness of Christ“.
and seek to recompense their former indulgence – by generous gifts to the poor, in the hope that God will be pleased with their good effort and kind deeds.
in the hope that God will be pleased with their worthy work and kindly activities.
And as you journey across the wilderness of life towards the promised future hope, and as you daily continue in the process of sanctification and child-training..
To neglect or oppose any one of this trio is to resist the Spirit of God, to grieve the Spirit of God – to quench the Spirit of God, but until we draw our last breath, we can change and there is always hope.
A Study:- Man’s Nature and Destiny
And now abide these three – faith – hope – love.1Corinthians13:13
I remember you always for these three things: your work of FAITH, your labour of LOVE, your patience of HOPE in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father .1Thessalonians 1:3
The permanent, indwelling Holy Spirit became the gift to the church – an irreversible gift to you: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
But that trusting faith is built on a hope of salvation..
the saving of the body – a future hope, where there is no more pain or disappointments, hurt or distress.
Faith in His word translates into Hope in His word: for if in this life only we have hope in Christ, then we are of all men most miserable. 1Cor.15:19
Blessed Hope
Not one of the promises of scripture have ever failed in the past.
And now in this darkest history of the world, we wait a second time – in hope.
And that Hope has a name – it is “The Blessed Hope” – the Lord Christ Jesus: looking for that blessed hope – looking unto Jesus.
This is an attitude of life and health, and inherent in this attitude is a salutary effect: for every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as He is pure. 1John.3:3.
This hope in the coming of Christ cleanses the soul of the sinner saved by grace.
Holding Fast
This is a crazy world, and we know it is shattering into a billion fragments, but we do have a hope, and we are exhorted: not to sorrow as others who have no hope. 1Thess.4:13 – but to look for that Blessed Hope – Christ the Firstfruit..
We are to hold fast to our hope.
Be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord – rejoicing in hope and patient in tribulation.
Future of Hope
God has also given us the gift of hope – a kingdom hope reaching into the eternal future.
A future hope – an expectant hope when God’s promises reach their climax.
That future hope is a time that the believer looks towards, through a lifetime of pain.
That blessed hope..
Love is preeminently a grace bestowed, just like faith and hope and all other fruit.
Love is primarily a holy adhesive, uniting faith, and hope in all that Christ is.
Three Gifts
Yes, there are three amazing gifts that have been bestowed on all that believe – Faith, and Hope, and Love – these three gifts – these three promises, but the greatest of the three is LOVE.
And down through the long years, each young woman dared to hope that she… O, that she might be that favoured one, through whom the Saviour would be born. Young hearts must have burned with expectant hope, with each newborn babe.
Fading Hope
Years came and years went.
To some, it must have become a whisper of a forgotten hope – a myth of yore!
To the few, it was expected… anticipated. To the small, tiny, declining remnant alone, that hope remained truly alive. Oh, how much like those waned, failed hopes of believers in this day and age. How similar to the way the promises of His return has been dismissed today – faded like the morning mist.. evaporated like a dry, dusty, desert puddle. How indistinguishable from the apathetic body that awaits Christ’s glorious appearing.
at the expense of securing His promise in their hearts – instead of His anticipated arrival – and our wise spiritual preparation. 'Hope deferred makes the heart sick…..' we read in Proverbs 13:12.
A delayed expectation can cause the strongest believer to question his hope.
Hope of Salvation
Yet Mary the virgin was given the honour of honour among all women.
But how few recognise and trust in the hope of their Salvation..
But how few – how very few recognise this and continue to rejoice in our hope..
Saving of the Soul
Paul writes in First Corinthians 15: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. 1Cor.15:19. 'But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul'.
Heb.10:39 'Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ', Titus 3:13 Jesus questioned: 'when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?' Luke 18:8.
strengthen your brethren.' Luke 22:32 'Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the Desire comes, it is a tree of life'.
Accept the staggering truth contained within the following astonishing verses. The eyes of your understanding are being enlightened; that ye may know what is the Hope of His calling, and what are the Riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (and that includes you – beloved child of God), according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. Ephesians 1:18-20
It is Finished
This is not a future hope... although it’s final manifestation is indeed future. It is a completed and finished fact in your life and in mine – as a child of God. Just as Christ defeated death and Satan, as once and for all he cried, It Is Finished… so these truths are accomplished and finished in your life and in mine.
Should we not similarly stand in the gap for brothers and sisters in Christ, who like the world are being overwhelmed with the cares of this life – who seem to have lost hope in the Lord’s return to claim His precious bride.
STUDY in PRAYER
God wanted to make known among the gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.Colossians 1:27
It is Christ within and among you; Christ, Who is the hope of realising the glory.
Hope of Glory
This is not our own striving – this is Christ working in us the hope of glory: 'for I want you to know how great is my solicitude for you how severe an inward a struggle I am engaged in for you and for those believers at Laodicea, and for all who like yourselves who have never seen my face, or known me personally.' Col.2:1
Commands to Pray
Pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. 1 Timothy 2:8 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer Romans 12:12 Build up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost Jude 1:20 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit Ephesians 6:18 Night and day praying exceedingly.. 1 Thessalonians 3:10 Pray in spirit, and truth, John 4:24 Pray without ceasing.. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Brothers, pray for us..2 Thessalonians 3:1
Great Salvation
The Salvation that is given as a free gift of grace to all Who trust in the name of God’s only begotten Son, is a great Salvation that was given to man by God; announced to the world by angelic beings; confirmed by all Who heard and received the glorious gospel of Christ and recorded for our learning – to guide us into all truth and to give us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God’s promises to be fulfilled.
First Evangels
It was an angelic throng who were the first evangels that proclaimed the good news of a Saviour, as they abruptly burst through the blackness of night with their joyful news – the Light of God was in the world to bring peace and life to all who would believe. The world needed to know that the Prince of Peace had come to earth to bring hope to a dying race and peace to men of goodwill… peace to all who trust Him as Saviour.
Insignificant Arrival
Christ’s own humility can be witnessed in His insignificant arrival on earth for He emptied Himself of the eternal glory He shared with the Father and came to earth as a helpless babe with nowhere to lay His head but a feeding trough in a borrowed cave. The shepherds instant obedience to the angelic message can be identified through the haste with which they sped to Bethlehem, to see the thing that had come to pass. But the gospel was not for them only – but a message of hope and joy to all people.
Specified Peace
The race of man to whom the angels had been sent were ‘children of wrath’, who were at enmity with the Creator – dead in their sins and without any hope in the world. The peace of which the angels sang was not a universal peace, with goodwill to all men, but a specified peace for men of goodwill – peace with God – through His Son. The peace that was proclaimed by the angelic host was the perfect peace of God, which is the right of those that trust in Christ – the only begotten Son of the Father.
Our spiritual blindness has gone and God’s wrath is removed for there is now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus – for we are accepted in the Beloved. We were once spiritually alienated from God and without hope in the world, but all enmity with God is washed away and we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Thanks be to God for His indefinable gift!
Israel was to be head of the nations and not the tail… a new day of hope was dawning. But Zacharias did not know of the glory of the cross nor the mystery of the Church.
Presence of Sin
And the wonderful hope that is set before us is that the presence of sin in our lives will be forever removed in the ages to come, when the Lord Jesus Christ – the last Adam, comes to take us to be with Himself into our eternal home – and we shall see Him as He is and we shall be clothed in glorified bodies – like unto His glorious body.
Second Man
Just as sin entered the world through the disobedience of one man, and death came through sin, causing condemnation and separation from God to be the inherited status of all people – so also redemption came to the world through the obedience of one Man, resulting in the forgiveness of sins for all humanity – and light and life and hope and peace and renewed fellowship with the Father – to ALL who would believe on His name. It was divine grace that provided a second Adam to redeem the fallen race of man.
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defence to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet do so with gentleness and reverence.1 Peter 3:15
Let us in our hearts revere, Christ Jesus, as Lord and God, and always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
If Christ is not God, there is no Christian faith – no Salvation – no hope – no future.
humanity’s hope would be shattered.
Whole Hope
One godly saint of old wrote these words for posterity: With all possible conviction and faith I confess my Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, on Whom my whole hope of eternal life and present rest and strength depends – in the proper and ultimate sense, we say – He is God… eternal; all-holy; almighty; One from eternity and to eternity, with the Father and the Spirit… forever and ever Amen.
All are without hope and without God in a world of sin.
The Bad News
The bad news of the biblical gospel is that all have sinned and are deserving of death. All have missed the mark – all are separated from God – all are sinners to the core. All are spiritually dead – all are without hope and without God in a world of sin. But only when the bad news of the gospel is seen in its proper context – where sin separates man from God forever – does the good news of the gospel come into view. So what is the good news of the gospel of salvation that is open to every man? What is the good news for those that believe in Jesus Christ – the Son of God?
And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself now – (sanctification) just as He is pure.1 John 3:3
And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself (through practical sanctification, during the present age) – just as the Lord Jesus Christ is pure.
God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Colossians 1:27
Christ In You
What glorious riches there are in this profound mystery of Christ and the church, – which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Flesh Versus Spirit
The stark contrast between the Law- in which he trusted, and Grace- his only hope, started to register in the mind of Nicodemus – for the law, has its roots in the flesh.
Spirit of God
He is the Spirit of truth and of love – He is it Who illuminates the word of God. He is the Spirit of power and peace – He it is Who convicts and converts the soul. He is the Spirit of grace and joy – and He is the Spirit of righteousness and hope.
Crucified Life
In writing this verse Paul is stating what should be true in the life of all believers. This should not be seen as an unattainable hope, but as the norm of all Christians. This is not something to strive for but something that we should accept in essence, but the life that is lived by most believers is not the life that God wants us to live. The Christian life should be a crucified life – until it is no longer I – but Christ.
I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope He has given to those he called—His holy people, who are His rich and glorious inheritance.
Blessed Hope
What a joy for Paul that these Ephesians believers had such a love for their Lord, and how he longed that they fully appreciate the blessed hope they have in Christ.
Spiritual Freedom
Paul prayed that the church would be given spiritual wisdom and godly insight. He wanted all believers to be able to remain confident in the hope of their calling. He did not want them to be tossed hither and thither by every wind of doctrine – but to know the truth of their union with Christ – for that truth will set us free.
Spiritual Understanding
Paul not only prayed for revelation and insight but enlightenment and illumination. Paul not only prayed that we understand our position in Christ but our future hope.
He prayed this light would saturate our understanding of our blessed hope in Christ.
He prayed passionately that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the glorious future hope to which we are all called, which is laid up for us in heaven, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints – His holy people.
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of HIM – that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope He has given to those he called—His holy people who are His rich and glorious inheritance.
Purposeful Life
The new nature wants us to put away anger that flares us in the heat of our flesh, for such behaviour gives the roaring lion an opportunity to devour our hope.
Gracious Words
The words of Christ ministered to an exact point of need – speaking the truth in love. His speech was seasoned with salt – cleaning and impacting hurting, damaged lives – addressing the need, while touching the truth, with gracious words of love and hope.
Sinner or Saint
There is no more hopeless and helpless state than to be an unbeliever in this world, but there is no more eternally glorious hope than to be a believer in Christ Jesus.
Without God
We were without Christ; without God; without a future and without hope in the world.
Without Hope
We were without the adoption into son-ship – with no hope of an eternal inheritance. We were in all ways hopeless and helpless – enslaved in the evil kingdom of Satan.
Great Exchange
Our hopeless depravity was exchanged for the hope of glory and adoption to sonship. We were translated into the kingdom of Christ and covered in light and life eternal.
Plan of God
Jesus gives beauty in exchange for our brokenness. He gives light in exchange for our thickest darkness. He gives hope in exchange for our deepest despair.
This one small act of trust brings us out of sin and into salvation; out of darkness into His perfect light; out of Satan into Christ in God; out of death into life; out of despair into hope – out of ashes into beauty.
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait, for the salvation of the LORD.Lamentations.3:25
Elijah’s Hope
Elijah refused to allow them to come between himself and the promise of God: thou shalt drink of the brook, and the ravens will bring you food. 1 Kings 17:4 And Elijah sat still and watched the streamlet become a sliver thread. And Elijah sat still and watched the silver thread reduced to a standing pool. And Elijah sat still and watched the standing pool shrink to nothing on the dusty earth. And Elijah trusted God, and Elijah waited.
Flame of Hope
But in the bleak darkness of this fallen world, shines the steady flame of hope.
Hope that consoles the heart of the distressed believer; hope that brightens the steely skies; hope that uplifts the downcast spirit; hope that ministers to the wounded soul. Let there be hope today.
Let your heart be glad: for blessed is the man whose hope is in the Lord.
Root of Hope
But hope is not an optimistic outlook or positive thinking.
And hope is not a vain desire, an empty wish, or self-induced feeling.
Hope is the believer’s grace that is founded upon certain stable facts.
Hope has its roots entwined in the truth of God’s holy Word.
Hope has its foundation firmly set on the Rock of our Salvation.
Foundation of HopeHope rests on the nature and name of almighty God. Hope stands on the promises and character of the Lord Most High. Hope believes in His fundamental goodness and eternal wisdom. Hope reflects back over His never-failing goodness and His immeasurable mercies. Hope looks steadily ahead to the promised fulfilment of His word of the Kingdom.
Prophecies of HopeHope believes the prophecies of the judgment of the wicked.
Hope trusts in His love for the blessing of the godly.
Hope promises of a creation, subdued under the kingship of the Lord of glory, and hope rejoices in a heaven where sorrow and distress flee away, and where the Lord shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
Lord of Hope
Oh believer, make Him your hope. Find your trust and your hope in Him. Fix your heart unstintingly on the Lord, if you will to discover your hope in Him, and you will not be shaken with the passing events, and you will not be overwhelmed by the abundance of human failures – and you will not sink down into the miry clay of the 'Slough of Despond'. For He has confirmed His sovereign word with an oath. He has bound Himself to us with an everlasting covenant.
Eternal Hope
He has established the eternal love of the Father towards us, in that while we were yet sinners… Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 Yes, and He placed us in Christ, and He seated us together with Him in heavenly places..
Hope rejoices, for my expectation – my hope is from Him.
Hope does not disappoint, Romans 5:5 for blessed is the man…whose hope is in the Lord. Psalm 146:5
Word of Hope
Let us lift up our voice and sing with the sweet Psalmist of Israel who reminds us to hope in God, and to hope in His Salvation, and to hope in His Word. Let us delight in the reassuring words of the apostle to the Gentiles, who excites us that our hope, our joy, and our crown of rejoicing, is rejoicing in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming to set up His kingdom. Our rejoicing is in Christ – in Christ alone.
God of Hope
We read: Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews.6:17-20
Gift of Hope
Eternal Life is not the hope that we may or may not receive. Eternal Life is not an inheritance which we may or may not obtain. Eternal Life is not it is not a reward a prize….
Heavenly Hope
But remember, He is soon coming to set up His kingdom, and has indeed set a hope before all believers - the hope of His heavenly kingdom, where overcomers will one day rule and reign with Him… The promise of an earthly kingdom, with Israel as the head and not the tail of the earthly nations..
And another hymn-writer, pens in his famous stanza, that God provides:- Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow…
God’s Grace
Like each and every gift of grace, His strength is ministered to each of us according to our need. We have no need of a bank deposit of $upply, No spiritual battery from which to draw our spiritual £trength. His supply is a continuous flow, received by faith as need requires. Life is divided into days – and day after day after day, He provides and supplies the strength. Down through the weeks which flow into months and years, He continues to provide ‘Strength for the day and bright hope for the morrow!’
It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.Lamentations 3:26
Waiting Soul
Wait for God; Wait for the Father; Wait on Me – Wait I say on the Lord I said:- I will wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in His word do I hope. Psalm 130:5
Follow His Lead
He will guide our footsteps and protect our paths. He will open for us a door of hope in Valley of Achor, and bring us from the desolate place into the promised land: Beulah..
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.Proverbs 3:12
For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.Galatians 5:5
when clouds of hopelessness seem to linger in a thundery sky. These are often times when one needs to wait in hope… until the longed-for deferred fulfilment of a precious promise is at last rewarded.
Deferred Hope
But sometimes waiting in hope, has its own singular pain..
Even though there seemed to be no glimmer of precious hope, Habakkuk summed up deferred hope in his astonishing prayer: Though the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be on the vines, the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat..
Testings in Hope
This is the point where hope is deferred. This is the state where hope is put through the testing mangle.
This is the place where the greatest patience and trusting hope must be exhibited… where Love and Faith support the weary arms of Hope.. just as Joshua and Hur held up the weary arms of Moses, until the precious desire blossoms forth as a Tree of Life..
for Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes it IS a Tree of Life.
Patience in Hope
So refuse to despair.
Deferred hope is not something that only you are facing today; it is Job – in his tempest; it is Abraham, on the long and dusty road to Moriah; it is Moses, in the blistering deserts of Midian; it is Elijah, beside the evaporating brook of Cherith. It is Habakkuk, trembling in his Shigionoth. It is the Son of Man, prostrate in the Garden of Gethsemane. There is no patience so hard to bear as hope that has been deferred. This is waiting for a delayed hope, which requires endurance, patience, perseverance.
Rewards of Hope
For hope deferred maketh the heart sick – but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life. How glorious that little word BUT.
Examples of Hope
Job’s eyes were opened, discovering, Thou canst do everything.
Our Blessed Hope
The Son of Man Who for the joy that was before Him, prostrated Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane..
When deferred hope makes your heart sick..
when the desired hope at long last appears, remember it is a Tree of Life.
He prayed that they might be endued with the Spirit of wisdom and understanding so that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened – to know the hope to which they had been called and the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in his holy people.
Assured Acceptance
Newell continues by pointing out how to live: 1) To believe, and to consent to be loved while unworthy – is the great secret. 2) To refuse to make ‘resolutions’ and ‘vows’ – for that is to trust in the flesh. 3) To expect to be blessed – though realizing more and more ones lack of worth. 4) To rely on God’s chastening (His child training hand) – as a mark of His kindness. 5) To ‘hope to be better’ ( i.e.
You are accepted in the Beloved. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, Who has loved us and given [us] everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17. For you are accepted in the Beloved.
This current world system is not where we should be placing our hope – for our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Saviour – the Lord Jesus Christ Philippians 3:20. Scripture informs us that the love of many believers will grow cold. The Bible tells us that many Christians will forsake Him for alternative truths. The Word of God warns that the Church will be leavened at the time of His return.
Strong in the Faith
While his enemy sought to do their worst, Paul discovered the inexhaustible supply of the peace of God, the joy of the Lord, the sufficiency of His Master and the blessed hope..
It is vital to trust in the promises that flood through the Holy Scriptures for they are indeed food for the soul; refreshment for the weary; hope for the dejected and sufficient for all our needs in the day of trouble.
This name has gladded the hearts of men and women down through the centuries and instilled hope and peace into a world that is dead in trespasses and sins..
He alone engenders heavenly hope in a believer’s life and pours in the oil of His perfect peace into the struggling soul. How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds, in a believer’s ear!
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.Romans 8:25
In Isaiah 40 we read these words: The grass withers, the flower fades, heaven and earth will pass away, but the word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah 40:8 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
Are you looking forward into the future, with dreams of what you hope will be – or what you long to be?
Lessons to Learn
Learn the lesson the Lord has to teach you, in your past joys and foolish mistakes, and don’t be tempted to crave some pot of gold, at the end of some future rainbow – and all memories of the past and hope for the future will be beautified for your benefit.
Future Perspective
And as He pours His love and hope and blessing and joy through you, to others..
And Peter urges us to:- sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you..
destroying faith and hope – God knows how much we can all bear: For no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. 1Corinthians 10:13
And from each magnificent cascade of glory, additional rays of grace spill out – repentance; justification; conversion; regeneration; faith; hope and love.
The inner need of man is sweet fellowship with God. He is my peace. He is my guide. He is my strength. He is my hope. He is my all in all. They who have never drawn close to Him, see no beauty that they should desire Him.
Love and Mercy
And over those twenty years of struggle and joy, pain and hope, He has graciously shown me the other side of the coin from the Sacrifice of Praise.
Example of Nature
As as we gaze upon His loveliness and inhale the perfume of His person; the eyes of our our understanding are enlightened; the hope of our calling becomes secured; the riches of His splendour and His exceeding greatness becomes our reality – and the wonders of the glory of His inheritance in us is recognised and accepted as truth.
Let him put his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope..Lamentations 3:28, 29.
Let him put his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.
This is not because he hates us, for He knows the plans He has for each of us: plans for good and not for evil – to give you a promise and a hope of salvation.
Though he saw no evidence of hope, he must watch and wait for God, for though it appeared to the contrary, God was in control – that all was being worked out according to God’s preordained and perfect plan.
My Jesus, My Saviour, My God, My King, My Lord, My Life, My Way, My End, My dearly Beloved, My Joy, My Hope, My Delight, My Peace, My Shepherd, My Provider, My Redeemer, My Rock, My Strength, My Stay, My All.
The creative power of God gives light and life and hope to a believing soul, and God points to Jesus, when He declared: hear Him, from His fiery throne.
Multifaceted Peace
His is the peace that enabled Him to be silent when so grossly misrepresented. His is the peace that spoke calmness and authority to stormy seas and lashing waves. His is the peace that comforted the widow and restored hope in a distraught Jairus. His peace, He gives gladly and generously and continuously.
Born to Die
He was born to die – that men might live. He was born to be made vile sin – that sinners might be made pure and perfect. He was born to be broken – that sin-shattered man might be made whole. He was born to be wounded – that damaged, traumatised man might be made new. He was born to bring the despairing, comfort, hope and joy that was lost in Eden’s realm. He came to bind up and to heal the broken, bloodied, wounded heart.
Spiritual Bliss
How many of us, like these shepherds, have been in the very presence of God? How many of us, recall that wonderful transfiguring time, and long for its return? How many even question the glorious promises, bestowed on us from earlier days? How many start to wonder if the closeness, once discovered, when in His Presence.. was but an illusion; a dream; a forgotten hope; a lost delight – as they also leave that high point in their lives and walk away (leaving their first love).
created in God’s image is a trinity of spirit, soul and body. But since Adam’s fall his progeny are fallen creatures, born into a fallen world, and the only hope for mankind is to be reborn, as a new a creation in Christ.
My soul, wait thou only upon God — for my hope is in Him, my expectation is in Him, my assurance is in Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation – my fortress where I will not be shaken.Psalm 62:5
Assured Hope
To hope in Him is to disallow any circumstance that dictates hopelessness.
To hope in Him is to trust Him to finish the good work that He has begun – to expect, with full assurance, that He Who promised is faithful and true.
So hold fast, for my hope is in Him, my expectation is in Him, my assurance is in HIM.
And from the moment he received the Spirit illumined pledge to see the Anointed-One, Simeon knew! Simeon had hope in his heart that his promised pledge would come to pass.
Many anticipated His return would be this year and placed their hope in calculations. Many seek answers in many places, through many teachings with many tears! Many have set dates in the coming year or in a future year yet to be identified! Many have simply changed their mind or altered their eschatological thinking.
They had been entrusted with the oracles of His coming. They had the prophets, the law, the word of truth, the hope of salvation. And yet we read that: He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own people received Him not.
or be double-minded and be disturbed. FOURTHLY: Don’t worry about anything, and just cast all concern on Him. Those that wait and hope and trust the Lord in all things are renewed in alll-ways.
Those that won’t wait and hope and trust the Lord – try to sort out their own problems – and the result is insecurity, fretfulness, depression, panic, and sleeplessness.
Revelation 2:26 tells us: he who overcomes, and he who keeps My works until the end.. Rev,2:26. I take comfort in the following words today – and I hope that you do too.
Life’s Paradox
The Christian walk is one huge paradox: Success comes through failure. Life springs out of death. Hope arises out of despair. Joy is born out of pain: For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” 2Cor.4:11
The frothy, superficial world of material things helps to tarnish foundational truths, and a Christ-rejecting sinful world exhausts the soul’s hope through its ongoing harassments.
Pray for Understanding
How we need to pray for the good news of Calvary to take root in their hearts.. that Satan won’t be permitted to steal the precious seed of the gospel sown in their hearts – that God would open their hearts to understand the hope of Christ’s salvation: for when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. Matt.13:19
Why does He seemingly turn His back and apparently walk away from our despair? Why does He delay when His word overflows with contrary pledges of deliverance? Why tax His dear one’s trust and exhaust His precious child’s hope of deliverance? Why does He allow faith to be torn to shreds due to His apparent, uncaring delay?
Greater Purpose
But lips that have pleaded in agony of heart for years do not go unnoticed. Eyes that wept tears of pleading, until numbness replaces hope do not go unheeded..
It is not just life; acceptance; redemption and righteousness that are in Him, but the creation; our hope; spiritual blessings; consolation… and consummation – and Peace and Effectual Prayer and Strength and Riches are all “In Christ”.
Total Righteousness
And His gift to all who trust on His name is a justifying righteousness:- regeneration; sanctification; glorification; a new creation in Christ, and the grace of God and peace with God, and faith and hope and love and joy, and the indwelling Spirit and a heavenly inheritance – and eternal life: for He washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.
The Blessed Hope
The hope of those, 'blesseds' of the Lord, is beyond the present, physical world, – His blessed blessings reach deep into the love-heart of Himself. – His Blessed hope stretches forward to the coming kingdom.
“This Blessed Hope” is in a Person – the One upon Whom all hope rests… “…the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour – Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13 “Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when He comes.” Luke 24:43 “Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb” Rev.19:9 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.” Rev 22:14
For Thine is the power… Matthew 6:13 Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, for you shall be the miracle – which is: Christ In You – the hope of glory Colossians 1:27
Sadly, there are many kind-hearted saints that pathetically lack maturity, Let us not criticise their ‘lack’ nor commend our ‘spirituality’! But let us earnestly and steadfastly press towards the high calling of God, which is Christ in you the hope of glory Colossians 1:27
It is despair of MY life and no hope in MY-self that God is waiting to discern in me, When we discover we can do nothing of ourselves, His Life starts to be formed in us.
It is vanity to set your heart and hope on things that pass in the twinkling of an eye.
This great adversary of God is in a bloody battle – to scupper the hope of the glorious gospel of Christ’s glorious return.
Hope’s Extremity
Yes, they had reached the very limit of their endurance.
They had arrived at the extremity of their hope and then they trusted Him, but His own kith and kin restricted His power by their lack of faith in Him.
Hope of Glory
Oh yes… the full, multi-dimensional yet single Gospel is indeed a glorious mystery.. a mystery which has been hid from all ages and generations, which is Christ in you the hope of glory.
But a man that entirely reflects God’s moral nature – to God’s own satisfaction. A corporate man after God’s own heart – walking in loving obedience… A body, communicating His perfect character to a dying world in sin. And the goal of that corporate body is, “Christ in you - the hope of glory.”
In disappointments, He would be their abiding hope.
Christian’s Hope
And down through the past twenty centuries, His words have comforted many.
Down through the church age, abiding in Him has been the Christians’ hope.
Timely Acquaintance
It was in Nice, in France, where his life journey was ended - but some of the final words to his little flock in his hometown were these:- O brethren, I stand here among you today, as alive from the dead, if I may hope to impress it upon you, and induce you to prepare for that solemn hour which must come to all, by a timely acquaintance with the death of Christ.
we are to exhort, to encourage, to urge and become united in hope, one with another.
Education, politics, news – unrest, uncertainty disorder and chaos all combine.. and fear of the future and a loss of hope is the inevitable outcome – and lack of faith is the insidious bedfellow of hopelessness and despair… UNLESS… Unless we can hold fast that what is good – hold on to the promises of God.
Christ In You
This perfecting of the Body into the likeness of Christ is a godly mystery “Christ in you the hope of glory.” Col.1:27. But know this – that when we see Him we shall be like Him..
Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.1Thessalonians 5:8
for when we are covered with Christ we have put on faith and hope and love.
Protective Peace
The third grace of this harmonious trio of protective peace – is the hope of salvation.
The helmet of hope should protect our thoughts and flood through our minds, for hope is that sure anticipation of the glory of Christ that is to be fully revealed.
The helmet of the hope of our salvation protects our minds from the darkness of this age.
Let us put on the breastplate of faith and love, for we are covered in His righteousness, and for a helmet – let us wear the hope of eternal salvation in Him.
and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:8
Living faith, divine love and patient hope are the three essential garments of protection.
This combination of faith, love and hope is our essential protection from this evil day.
Let us be like the Thessalonian believers, who Paul remembers with affection for... your work of Faith, your labour of Love, and your patience of Hope, in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father,” 1 1Thessalonians 1:3
Work of Faith
There can be no acceptable work of God in our lives that is not a work of faith. There can be no work of faith, which is not a labour of God’s agape love in us. There can be no end-time endurance without the patience of hope resting on Him.
It is an epistle of encouragement and hope, from Christ to His Church.
An Incomparable Book
Hidden in this incomparable book of books are excellences and incomparable glory – truth, that refreshes the soul; promises, that quicken the heart; love, that explodes in hope – a blessed hope, that is as firm and secure as the throne of God in heavenly places.
A Staff to Support
Within His written Word of love and hope is all that is needed for life and health.
Infinite Fullness
God is continuing to work out His eternal purpose in each of our lives. We may not know what our role is now – but we all have a part to play. His dealings may be beyond our understanding but let us trust Him and live by faith, for the infinite fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ is the wonderful purpose of God. Christ in you the hope of glory – until Christ is all in all.
A life of quiet and calm; a life of hope and fulfilment: a life of peace and rejoicing... a life of unbroken fellowship with the Lord; a life of love and joy and hope; a life nestling in the bosom of the Father; a life where darkness has melted away; a life where sorrows of the night have softened into joy of an eternal morning.
The Spirit of God has laid out in the Word of God how to live the Christian life – not in the Law nor in the works of the flesh– but through Christ in us – Christ in you, the hope of glory.
that crooked serpent called the devil, has dominated this realm. God is using the rebellion of Satan and the fall of Adam to teach man a vital lesson. God is teaching man that only submission to Himself brings joy and peace and hope. God rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever He will, and sets up over it the basest of men.
Pinnacle of Faith
The book of Ephesians must be the pinnacle of faith, hope and love for the believer. The book of Ephesians has rightly been called the Holiest of all Holy Scripture, and we would do well to read its content; reflect on its glory and rely on its truth – for it reaches beyond man’s creative vision and peeps into the mind of the Creator. It touches into the heavenly realms and glimpses the likeness of the glory of God.
Heirship with Christ
We share in a joint-HEIRSHIP with Christ, reserved in the heavenlies that’ll never fade God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading - kept in heaven for you. 1 Peter 1:4-5 And the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ - provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. Romans 8:17
Underlying Hope
Perhaps there is no greater yearning in the heart of everyman than to love and to be loved.. to be accepted, truly accepted – to be really and truly and honestly accepted.
It is underpinned by a hope that no matter what we say or do..
But we are also made to be His heritage so that He will be glorified in all His saints. He will be regarded with wonder on that day by all who have believed, including you, because you believed. 2 Thessalonians 1:10 We, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, are to be to for the praise of His glory.
that the glorious Father may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better, that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in His holy people and His incomparably great power for us who believe.
Great Salvation
We are to know more fully the vast extent of the hope of His calling..
a hope that Paul spilled out like a casket of jewels in the verses that went before..
a great hope that is not yet fully realised in our experience until the day of Christ..
an eternal hope that God wrote in the past tense – which speaks of utter assurance – the full vista of our great salvation, when we are transformed in His very presence.
Unveiled Inheritance
We are to know more fully the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.. not only the actual inheritance that is held in trust, but its considerable GLORY.. the riches of grace, peace, hope, and love – that are ours to live by in the present, and its full and final and unveiled inheritance – when we see Him as He is.
We share in His sufferings; hope in His resurrection; are promised an inheritance – for me to live in Christ and to die is gain for in Him is the fullness of joy.
Grace and Glory
As we share in the riches of His grace so we participate in the riches of His glory. We are gathered together in Christ and in Him receive the final fruition of our hope, and we will rule and reign with Him forever..
Heirship
We share in a joint-HEIRSHIP with Christ reserved in the heavenlies that’ll never fade. God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. 1 Peter 1:4-5 And the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
It trains us to renounce ungodly living and worldly passions so that we might live sensible, honest, and godly lives in the present age, as we wait for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus the Messiah.Titus 2:11
He also reminds us of our future blessed hope and the expected return of our Lord – and it is all connected with the grace of our wonderful, loving, gracious God.
Expanse of Grace
It is God’s grace that warns of the dangers of unrighteous living and worldly lusts. It is the grace of God that trains us into righteous living and worthy, godly conduct. It is His grace that bestowed upon us our Blessed Hope and the riches of His glory, as we wait for the glorious appearance of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
It trains us to renounce ungodly living and worldly passions so that we might live sensible, honest, and godly lives in the present age, as we wait for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus the Messiah.
Ditties of Grace
Some use little catchy ditties or rhymes to remind themselves of God’s grace: Given by God mercifully, Riches in Christ bestowed freely, Atonement sacrificially, Christ in us the hope of glory, Evermore undeservedly.
God's hope is in His own Life, not in ours, and He puts the basis of His hope within at new birth, and on that basis He proceeds to the development of all His thought, and the realization of all His intention.
It is not that He Himself in His heart accepts the wrong things, but He sees through them, He sees differently from ourselves.... You can see there is no hope of building up unless there is love and love for all men.
that the glorious Father may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation - that you may know Him better, that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in His holy people and His incomparably great power for us who believe.
Great Salvation
We are to know more fully the vast extent of the hope of His calling.. a hope that Paul spilled out like a casket of jewels in the verses that went before.. a great hope that is not yet fully realised in our experience until the day of Christ..
an eternal hope that God wrote in the past tense, which speaks of utter assurance - the full vista of our great Salvation when we are transformed in His very presence.
Unveiled Inheritance
We are to know more fully the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.. not only the actual inheritance that is held in trust, but its considerable GLORY - the riches of grace, peace, hope, and love, that are ours to live by in the present, and its full and final and unveiled inheritance, when we see Him as He is.
Amazing grace, How sweet the soundThat saved a wretch like me.I once was lost, but now I am found,Was blind, but now I see.'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,And grace my fears relieved.How precious did that grace appearThe hour I first believed.Through many dangers, toils and snaresI have already come,'Tis grace has brought me safe thus farAnd grace will lead me home.The Lord has promised good to meHis word my hope secures;He will my shield and portion be,As long as life endures.Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,And mortal life shall ceaseI shall possess within the veil,A life of joy and peace.When we've been there ten thousand yearsBright shining as the sun,We've no less days to sing God's praiseThan when we've first begu