Hang Onto Your Hope

There is one thing that all of us need at this moment in time: hope.

This word gets lost in all of the fluff and chaos of the world, and we miss what a powerful thing it is. Hope isn’t a keychain. It’s not just the happy feeling you get after your morning coffee. It’s not a vague optimism. It’s not about what you can see.

Hope is about what we don’t see. Hope is an anchor thrown into the future, in the belief that it will hold fast. Hope is both something you have and something you do.

The Apostle Paul talks about this in the book of Romans:

For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.
Romans 8:24-25

Here’s how I like to define Hope:

Having
Only
Positive
Expectations

The problem is, we apply that to all sorts of things. We place our positive expectations on our jobs, our relationships, our “someday maybe’s.” We can’t hope in those things, and we can’t hope in hope. That’s the keychain model of hope. It’s pretty. It sounds nice, but at the end of the day, just hoping in a distant feeling of hope is pretty empty. (If you know me at all, you know what I’m gonna say.)

Our hope belongs in Jesus.

How do we know we can hope in Jesus? First of all, we know his character. We don’t need to simply hope he’ll come through for us. He’s already come through for us! He came to earth to die for us, rose from the grave in victory, and has already invited us to be part of his family! We’re about to celebrate Easter, the season when believers all over the world celebrate the hope we have in the finished work of Jesus.

Notice that word “finished.” Is Jesus going to win the battle against the sin that wars in us? It is finished. Is Jesus going to conquer shame? It is finished. Is Jesus going to lead us in victory against death? Yes and amen. He already did it. When he cried from the cross that it was finished, he meant it. You don’t argue with Jesus. If he says that he’s already won this fight, it’s finished.

If we really believe that, our hope is limitless. All that’s required of us is to get our eyes off of ourselves and onto our Savior. Will that fix our circumstances? Not necessarily. But it will give us the perspective we need. It will remind us that we are in the middle chapters. When we fix our eyes on the Author of our beautiful story of redemption, we can believe that he will carry us to a good ending.

Read his book cover to cover, our God does not write tragedies. He works all things together for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28). That is the hope that we have.