Our Living Hope
Our hope in God is a LIVING HOPE according to 1 Peter 1:3-5 New American Standard Bible:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Looking at the Greek root of “living” gives us a lot of insight into just how rich and full our LIVING HOPE is. “Living” G2198 means “to live, breathe among the living, to enjoy real life, living water, having vital power in itself and exerting the same upon the soul, to be full of vigor, fresh, strong, active, powerful.” Wow, there’s a lot in that one little word!
Our LIVING HOPE enables us to BREATHE. When we are overcome by trials and difficulties, it feels suffocating. But God can breathe His life into us during that time, if we just chose to look to Him. Our LIVING HOPE, allows us to enjoy REAL LIFE. We get so caught up in what we think is life-comfort, pleasure, entertainment, prosperity, worldly goods, health, fame-but God wants to give us His real life-His presence. Our LIVING HOPE gives us LIVING WATER, the constant refreshing of His Spirit, His mercies that are new every morning, His LIFE. Our LIVING HOPE brings us new VIGOR, HIS STRENGTH, HIS POWER in our lives.
The word “HOPE” is mentioned 146 times throughout the Bible. Do you think God is trying to tell us something? That is a lot of teaching on hope. As mentioned before, we need hope in order to have faith. Hope is that expectation that God will come through for us, in His time, in His way, as our GOOD SHEPHERD. It’s the spark of faith. Anne Graham Lotz defines hope as:
“Biblical hope is absolute confidence in something you haven’t seen or received yet, but you’re absolutely confident that whatever God has said is going to come to pass.”
She also declares that “Jesus is your hope for the future. One day Jesus Christ will come back, and He will set all of the wrong right. Good will triumph over the bad. Love will triumph over hate. Righteousness will triumph over evil. He’s going to make it all right, and you can have absolute confidence that that’s going to take place. That’s your hope.” *
Jesus Himself and His work on the cross and resurrection are our HOPE! We never have to stop hoping-we can always hope! When we falter, we just have to look at Him again and He will guide our hearts back to hoping in Him. He is always there for us. Like David, we may sometimes have trouble hoping, but we have a choice and we can choose to place our HOPE IN HIM.
Our ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE is in Him! Our hope is in Him! So please don’t forget that
WE HAVE A LIVING HOPE, JESUS, WHO BREATHES HIS LIFE INTO US.
In His Love,
Suzanne
- quoted from Through a Season of Grief: 365 Devotions for Your Journey from Mourning to Joy
By Bill Dunn, Kathy Leonard
Mom Morsels 