Hope

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;”  Titus 2:13

Praying and asking the Lord what He wanted me to share in my writing today, the word “Hope” kept coming back to me.

Wikipedia describes it as follows:  Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one’s life or the world at large. As a verb, its definitions include: “expect with confidence” and “to cherish a desire with anticipation.”

What are we hoping for today?  With the announcement by our Government leaders yesterday, that they are going to start vaccinating seniors within the next few weeks, there is hope that perhaps this will be a turning point in the epidemic that is sweeping our country.  We will just have to wait and see if this brings the outcome people are anticipating.

As followers of the Lord Jesus Christ our hope is not in the vaccine, or in the measures that are being taken to slow the progress of the virus.  As Paul wrote to Titus, we are looking for that blessed hope, when Jesus Christ will return to this earth to take His people home.

There are many scriptures that speak of hope and I would just like to share just a few of them that have been a blessing to me.

Colossians 1:7 “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

I Corinthians 15:19 “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”

Hebrews 6:19 “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast.”

I Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

I John 3:2-3 “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”

Prayer: Thank you Jesus, for the hope You have given us that no matter what we face in this life, if we believe and trust in You, we have promise of spending eternity in Heaven.

Devotion by Anne Johnston