By Lara
Cook
Wait for the
LORD; be strong and courageous. Wait for the LORD (Psalm 27:14). Now without
faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must
believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him. —Hebrews 11:6
How
do you bring hope to a world that is so full of tragedy and evil? And what is hope exactly? A couple of weeks ago in church we lit the
hope candle on the Advent wreath. Advent
is a season of waiting and preparing – waiting and preparing for the coming of
the only hope for you, me, and this fallen world.
Hope is defined as: 1. to desire with expectation of
obtainment. 2. to expect with confidence : trust. —True hope is more than
just a wish. A wish is more of a dream
and Hope is more of a possibility or something that one can look forward to.
Hope is usually something that is doable and have a huge potential to happen. The objects of hope are different for
everyone. For some, hope is waiting for
financial relief from excessive debt.
For some, hope is waiting for healing in a broken relationship or
marriage. For some, hope means waiting
for miraculous healing from disease or illness.
For some, hope means never giving up believing that a child that has
strayed will come back to how they were raised. For others, hope means hanging
on day after day and trusting God in a seemingly hopeless life. Hope can be seeing the light at the end of
the tunnel in a life burdened by sin and shame.
But for all of these the only real hope they have is in someone or
something outside themselves.
Faith and hope…they go hand in hand.
In order to have real hope,
we must have faith. Faith is as strong
as that which it believes in. Real hope
is based on a strong faith in a loving God.
It took many, many years for the prophecy of the coming King to finally
come about, and truthfully, many of those watching and waiting probably lost
hope and faith as well. But He
came. He came and He brought hope to a
hopeless world. The gift of the baby in
the manger was realized hope.
He came as man, lived and died on the cross for us so we could have
eternal life, and hope. We cannot save
ourselves and we cannot save each other.
Jesus is the one and only true hope for all. He came as one of us and
lived, died and rose from the dead. We
now live in the hope that He is coming again!
This
Christmas season prepare your heart and make room for the coming Christ. Celebrate His birth and embrace the hope that
is Jesus Christ.
Scripture to Claim
I am leaving you
with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world
cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. John 14:27
