Come Home To Hope

     Christmas is just around the corner, and many will be returning home to spend time with family and friends. This year, no matter what your circumstances are, no matter what you are facing, whether it be a bad report from the doctor, botched relationships, a wayward child, or financial lack, I invite you to come home to hope.

     The hope I’m talking about is not the world’s kind of hope. The wishing for something without any expectation that the hope will be fulfilled. No, what I’m talking about is Biblical hope - the confident expectation and certainty that what God has promised in His Word will come to pass. It’s having one’s neck outstretched in anticipation of the answer that’s on its way.

     There are three aspects of hope I’d like to briefly examine.

1. The Christian hopes for what he cannot see. “…But hope does not involve what we already have or see. For who goes around hoping for what he already has? But if we wait expectantly for things we have never seen, then we hope with true perseverance and eager anticipation” (Romans 8:24-25 VOICE). This verse says it all.
2. Christian hope defies human reasoning. When Paul was in chains stating his defense of the Gospel and proclaiming the death and resurrection of Jesus in front of King Agrippa, Governor Festus interrupted and told Paul his great learning had made him insane (Acts 26:24). To the world, hoping in God is crazy.
3. Our hope in God and in His promises will never put us to shame. “No one who places his hope in you will ever be put to shame, but shame will be the lot of all who break faith without justification” (Psalm 25:3 NCB). “Such hope [in God’s promises] never disappoints us, because God’s love has been abundantly poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5 AMP).

     Sometimes, when God’s promises are not coming to pass in my life as soon as I would like them to, I remind myself (and God) that He has promised I will NEVER be ashamed for trusting in Him.

​     So, my dear friend, no matter what you are facing today, plant your feet firmly on the promises of God. “Then I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse. And its rider is called Faithful and True…” (italics mine Revelation 19:11 BSB). The God we serve is faithful and true. His promises will come to pass in your life.