A living hope requires a promise, one you can trust and believe that God will fulfill. That’s how God’s Spirit speaks to the deepest hopes of our hearts.
God's offers us many promises in the Bible that can fulfill our hopes for today and sustain our hopes for tomorrow. Those promises assure us of God’s provision, God’s protection and God’s presence in our lives here and now. But the truly “blessed assurance” is that God awaits our presence with Him then and there in eternity.
Our steadfast, promise-keeping God assures us that He will never leave or forsake us. He offers us comfort in our trials and perfect peace in our hearts if we accept his gracious offering. He will strengthen us in our weakness, rescue us from the tempter’s snare, and turn our grief into gladness… if we remain faithful, prayerful and ever, ever hopeful.
Jesus also promised us peace like the world has never known. He promised to be with us always, “even to the end of the age.” He promised to send us the Holy Spirit as our divine Helper and Advocate, our Teacher and Guide, and our ever-present source of Holy Ghost power. (John 14:26, Acts 1:8). And most importantly, he promised us eternal life if we only believe and live in him, as he lives in us. So, we who do believe, follow and serve Christ have a living hope in the promises of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
People cannot survive long without hope. Hope keeps us going through painful experiences and fear of what the future may hold…the kind of fear many people in our nation are feeling right now. In a fallen world where people face poverty, disease, hunger, violence, injustice, disaster, war and terrorism… we need a living hope.
“Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful.” If you want to have a living hope, it has to be grounded in a living promise. We have that living promise from our loving God.