Living in Hope

One of the greatest moments in my life came the week I was leading the study. I got the chance to reuse my joke about hoping that the Riders would win the Grey Cup and because it was entirely new group of people, they all went for it! Score one for Amanda!!

This wouldn’t be a proper bible study on hope if I didn’t use Hebrews 11:1. Have a peek and you’ll see why…

Now you know the definition that we’re using and we can move on from there.

Things hoped for; what does that look like? What do we really hope for? In everyday conversation you might hear someone say “I hope this wind lets up,” or “I hope that never happens to me.” The hopes that are being expressed are describing something that isn’t currently happening. It is currently windy; you wish it were not. You are currently afraid of something; you wish that you would not be. If the only child says “I wish I had a sister,” it sounds normal. When I, with one young sister say, “I wish I had a sister,” people look at me funny. When we put our hope in Christ, what we’re saying is that our hope is in something better than what we have in this world.

Unfortunately, in using the word hope as any of us would use it in a sentence, it creates a simile to wish. And a wish is something that we want, but realize is not a certainty. Our hope in Christ is different though, because it is a certainty. We have the wisdom of those who have gone before us. Our hope is built on the faith given to us by the Holy Spirit, but solidified by the hope that was shown by the writers of the gospels and the people of the Old Testament who lived out their faith in everything that they did.

Our hope is one that extends beyond the boundaries of this life here on earth. Our hope is that which is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14. We state every week that we believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting. Everything else that has been said has been leading up to this statement: Our hope is in the resurrection. There’s no other reason that we are without ignorance in death, that we live unlike those that have no hope than the fact that we believe that Jesus died, rose and ascended into heaven and he promises that we will too. Our hope is in a resurrected Saviour and the promise that we too will join him in eternal perfection.