Our Blessed Hope

 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ 
Titus 2:13 KJV

For years, my wife dreamed about us going on a cruise. Though bobbing around on the ocean, trapped on a boat, did not sound appealing to me, I finally agreed to a short cruise. Though I was a little apprehensive, after we found our stateroom and had eaten a delicious supper in the dining room, I began to think that this was not so bad. The next day, we had a great time, roaming around Cozumel and soaking in the hot tub at night. But what I loved most of all were the sunrises. I suppose for folks who have been on many cruises, the sight of the sun rising may be ordinary, but as I held on with one hand to the railing while, clutching my camera in the other, the beauty of the first rays of the sun shimmering over the waves took my breath away.

Yet, as lovely as that moment was, the Bible tells us of a far more beautiful event – The return of Jesus Christ. Just as the sky slowly brightened as dawn approached that morning on the ship, so also, we who are Christians have a little of God’s light beginning to shine in our hearts right now. But one day the Bible says that when Jesus returns this tiny light of ours will be eclipsed by the brightness of the light of Jesus at His return. In today’s verse, the Apostle Paul calls this, “That blessed hope.” and it is the gift that God gives, to carry us through our darkest nights and wildest storms. The blessed hope of Jesus’ return calls us to come out of our cabins, walk out on the top deck of our faith, and look out over the sea, watching for the eternal dawn at the return of Jesus Christ!

Prayer: Father thank you that no matter what we are going through we have a blessed hope as we wait for Jesus to return!

Because He is the God of Hope

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Romans 15:13 ESV

Hope is often encouraged by sayings like, “Don’t give up on hope” or “There’s always hope!” But the truth is that if we are disconnected from God then the only hope available is a false hope and there are a million people out there willing to offer it to us at a price. But in the moment we surrender to Jesus – who is the God of hope – then no matter our present circumstance we find there is hope all around us. I was especially touched by this video from the prison ministry, God Behind Bars.” It gives me great hope seeing these hundreds of men who had lost all hope, finding amazing hope again in Jesus Christ. This made my day and I HOPE that it makes yours!

Our Great Hope

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, He Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses Matthew 8:17 KJV

Did you know that God is so intimately concerned with our physical needs that He has even counted the number of hairs on our head? We have a great hope that whether in this life or in the next; God will heal every disease, restore all that is broken and renew our youth like the eagles!

Whether sitting in a wheel chair in a nursing home or confined to a bed with a tracheotomy tube in order to breathe, Jesus offers the hope of complete and entire healing as one part of His promise of eternal life. That promise may be overlooked or forgotten by those in perfect health, but God does not forget. The same Jesus who was moved with compassion for lepers, the blind and the lame has promised to wipe every tear from our eyes. He not only has compassion for our aches, pains and disabilities but the Bible tells us that He took all of these onto his shoulders and carried them.

If we continue reading in the chapter of Isaiah that Matthew quotes we see in the very next verse that it is by His stripes that we are healed. God is so very concerned for every one of our pains and infirmities that He allowed a whip to fall across the shoulders of Jesus. As He was wounded again and again we were being healed. Weak arms will be lifted, failing voices will sing again and deaf ears will hear the shepherd’s voice! When the things of earth have passed we will stand strong and eternally young in the presence of our ageless King!