“…since it is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain.” Acts 28:20
Hope is the state which promotes the confidence in a good outcome related to swirling circumstances in our lives. Most everything that we do is based on a hope.
I crawl out of bed in the morning based on a hope of the new day. I drive into work based on a hope of the income that will result from my employment. I proposed to my beautiful bride based on a hope of spending my life with her. We adopted children based on a hope of having a family. I have friendships that are based on hope of enjoyable fellowship.
It is hope that drives all that we do.
I give up when I lose hope. I have abandoned business strategies when I have lost hope in their effectiveness. I have fired employees when I have lost hope in their ability to do their job. I have stopped dieting when I am no longer motivated by a hope in a thinner me. I have abandoned fitness programs when my hope in their promises has faded.
We can do the incredible when hope is alive and well.
We can fail at the simplest when hope has died.
My problems arise when I draw my hope too close. My hope begins to die the more I reel it into my selfish world. I am not willing to endure much of anything when my hope is for a comfortable and pleasurable life. I can give up on most of the instruction of the Bible when my hope is based on me. Is that not what most temptation is? Most temptations are an enticement in the hope of self-love.
The love of self is poison to true sustaining hope.
What sort of hope do you think motivated Paul to wear chains? Paul had an easy escape from his captivity – deny Christ and he would be free. If Paul’s hope had been in a comfortable and pleasurable life, then he would never have endured. He would never have endured.
I am at my strongest when my hope is the farthest away from me. It is when I cast my hope into another world that I am on the surest footing. My desire is to cast my hope onto the promises of God and secure it firmly on the foundation of Christ.
Hope that is embedded in Christ will sustain us as we are reeled to that hope. We are not reeling Christ in toward us. He is reeling us through all the temptations, trials, and suffering of this world towards Him. He is the solid rock. We are the ones floating in trouble seas.
Is your hope secure? Is it alive and well or has it be poisoned by the proximity to your troubled heart?
Cast your hope far from you, onto the only One with whom it will thrive. Set your mind intentionally on the things of the Spirit and the resulting hope in our Lord and Savior will pull you through all trials and suffering of this world. It is hope in the glories that will be revealed to us that will sustain us through all the incomparable disappointments, temptations, trials, suffering, and persecution of this world. Hope in Christ will never disappoint. It is through our hope in Christ that we will endure to the end.
PRAYER: Father, in you alone I place my hope. You are my light, my strength, my song. You are my cornerstone and solid ground in this troubled world. Thank you for sustaining me. Thank you for guiding me. Thank you for giving me true hope. There is nothing that can break your hold on me as I cling to the sure foundation of your Son, Jesus Christ. My hope is found in Christ alone. Thank you for making me yours. I praise You and pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.
A DEVOTED LIFE 