Advent: Hope

Hope: What an amazing word, but you might be surprised by what it really means. Hope is a word used in our world as something that might happen. We use it to talk about the future and what we might become or do. When we use this word in the way the Bible uses it we see that it is a future event that will happen. There is certainty and fact about the word Hope.

We celebrate at Christmas time the hope that the people of Israel had that the Messiah would come and rescue them. There hope was fulfilled it was true when God said thousands of years before that He would send a rescuer to come and set them free. You and I can remember the story so clearly; we have been taught the story since we were little children before we could talk. We celebrate the day our Savior came into the world.

The other part of the Hope we celebrate at Christmas is the hope of Jesus return that He will come back and reign as the rightful king of the world. The true Hope that God will do what He said He would do. 1 Corinthians 1:10 reminds us that God has delivered us from and sin and will one day bring us to be with Him. We know how the story ends, it ends in a beautiful city where Jesus is sitting on His throne, and we get to spend eternity with Him forever.
Now that you understand the true meaning of Hope you can change the things you hope for this year. The presents are fun and enjoyable but the hope that comes in knowing Jesus, as your Savior and King will last forever.

The question to ponder: How is true Hope helping to prepare your heart for the day we celebrate Jesus birth?

a calling God

Our God is a calling God. Throughout all time, we find God calling people to carry out specific tasks – wealthy and settled Abraham was called to leave everything and go to a land that God would show him; the reluctant Moses was called to lead the people of Israel to freedom; the shepherd boy David, not old enough yet to shave, was called to be king; Gideon, who wanted proof that it was really God who was speaking to him, was called to lead an army against Israel’s enemies; the cheat and thief Matthew was called to be a disciple; the Christian hater, Saul of Tarsus, was called to be a missionary to the Gentiles. What is evident in all these examples is that the people whom God calls to do his work are ordinary people like you and me – people with weaknesses and handicaps, people with their fair share of marriage and family problems, people who don’t have much going for them from a human point of view. It is not beyond God to seemingly call the wrong people, for the wrong jobs at the wrong time and place. It seems all wrong doesn’t, but God knows what he is doing.

What are you called to?