One Hope

Often, when we use the word hope, we’re really talking about wishful thinking: “I hope my team wins the Super Bowl” or “I hope I get a raise.” But these are rather uncertain hopes. If someone says to us, “I hope you have a good day,” there is no guarantee that the day will go well. That’s not how the Bible uses the word hope. It isn’t wishing for the best. It isn’t waiting to see what happens and crossing our fingers that it turns out well. For the Christian, hope is not a fleeting feeling or a fickle emotion. Hope is a confident expectation, an anchor of the soul.

We’re all going to spend eternity together, so we might as well learn to get along now. We share a common dream, a common destiny, and a common destination. The knowledge that God will one day bring heaven to earth, ought to motivate us to get a head start. The church – the body of Christ – ought to be a preview of what heaven will be like. While we anxiously await the hope of resurrection, righteousness, and reunion, let’s do our very best to make this world a little more heavenly.

~Jeff