Having hope

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What do we hope for?  Hope in?

We all need lots of hope these days more than ever.  Sure, we are hoping for the end to this awful virus.  Hoping for a vaccine.  Hoping for life to get back to normal.

But there is a greater hope we can possess.  It never disappoints.  It will be fulfilled for certain one day.  And if we build our lives on it, we will have a solid foundation forever.

I am talking about hoping in Christ.

In my Bible reading this morning, I read in the book of Ephesians.  If you ever need to be encouraged about who you are in Christ, please read and reread Ephesians.  The richest of letters about our identity as believers in Christ.

Anyway, in Ephesians 2:12, Paul reminds us of what life was like before we came to know Christ, and tells of what life is currently like for the unbeliever, the unsaved:

"Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world." 

Wow.  That pretty much cuts to the chase.  There is no hope apart from God.  If we are hoping in anyone or anything else, we are actually without hope because we are without God.

So I ask you once again, what are you hoping in or for?

I encourage you to place your hope in the one Person who provides the truest and only real reason for hope.  When you place your hope and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be found in God and you will have a secure hope that will one day be fleshed out and completely fulfilled.  We will see our Savior face to face!  As believers, this is the greatest hope that we have, our salvation secured by our faith in Jesus' work on the cross for all mankind.  A hope that does not and can never disappoint. [Download my "Hope" poem here: Hope poem]

During this Season especially, let us hope in Christ.  He is our Hope.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness

I dare not trust the sweetest frame
But wholly lean on Jesus' name

On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand
(from the hymn, "My Hope is Built on Nothing Less")

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