Have you lost hope? Hope is to believe, desire or trust that things will get better. We hope that our current circumstances will get better. We hope that those around us will accept who we are. That they will love us.
I have learned through the years that sometimes hope disappoints. I remember a period of my life where it seemed that hope after hope there was great disappointment. My circumstances may have changed but at the core of the situation nothing changed. I clearly remember thinking to myself when I was about 15 “there is no hope of anything better than this.”
My hope was that life would get better. That people would change. The object of my hope required putting faith in people to do the right thing, to change. I did not understand then that to put my hope into anything other than Christ would be of great disappointment.
Our only hope is Christ. He is the only one who will not disappoint.
Why would I hope in Christ? While a whole book could be written on the reasons that our only hope is in Christ, I want to look specifically at Hebrews chapter 6–9.
I can hope in Christ because I know his promises are true. (Heb 6:9-16) His promises are unchangeable. (6:17) He can not lie. It’s not that He will not lie, but He CAN NOT. (6:18)
Hebrews 6:18 also says that “we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.”
What hope is set before us? What hope do we have “as an anchor of the soul”? “A hope both sure and steadfast?” (v19)
That hope is Christ Jesus himself. He is our High Priest. He is the ONE who died that we might have forgiveness of sin.
Because of Christ we no longer have to go to a priest to have our sins forgiven. Jesus is able to save forever those who draw near to God through His sacrifice. There is no need of daily sacrifices because Jesus paid the sacrifice once for all our sins when He offered up Himself. (Heb 7:25-28)
So how should we live? We live in the knowledge that we are perfect (positionally) before Christ. We have hope because our high priest sits at the right hand of God and ministers in the sanctuary of the true tabernacle. (8:1-2)
We live in hope because we know that Christ is in heaven making intercession for us. He is holy, innocent, undefiled, He is God. (7:25b-26)
When we hope in Christ we hope in one who will not disappoint. He will never fail us. He will never leave us.
The Christ who lives in us will not disappoint. The Christ in us is the HOPE of Glory. (Col 1:27)
Charles G. Finney once said, “Christ cannot be truly and savingly our hope, in any degree further than He is received into, and reigns, in our souls. To hope in merely an outward Christ is to hope in vain.”
Christ is our Hope. Our only rational expectation is from Him. Expectations placed anywhere else will fail. Christ in us is our Hope of glory. Without Christ in us, we have no good or well-grounded hope of glory.
Christ in the Gospel. Christ crucified. Christ risen. Christ in Heaven.
Christ is our only hope. That is a Christ which is actually present, living, and reigning in us as He reigns in heaven.
To live a life purposefully with hope means that I will take refuge in Christ knowing that He alone will not disappoint.
Would love for you to share how you are living with hope! Feel free to link back to me and leave a comment so I can visit!
Past Blog Post for Living Purposefully!
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