~ Good Morning!

Our Bible reading, and devotion for today, comes from …

• Romans‬ ‭15:13 •

“I pray that God, who gives hope, will bless you with complete happiness and peace because of your faith. And may the power of the Holy Spirit fill you with hope.” (CEV‬‬)

The Apostle Paul says, “I pray that God, who gives you hope…”

What does Hope mean?

The Old Testament:

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew language had two meanings for hope …

1.) Yakhal: To Wait For.

2.) Qavah: A Tense Anticipation/Expectation.

Hopeful people, in the Bible, often recognized that there was no evidence that things would get better, but you chose hope anyway.

In the OT, followers of God learned that it was God’s past faithfulness that motivated hope for the future. In other words, you looked for hope, by looking backwards, trusting in nothing but God. What God had done in the past, (deliverance, miracles, signs, wonders), God could do in the future.

The New Testament:

In the New Testament, the word for hope is:

1.) Elpis: A Tense Expectation for a Living Hope.

In the New Testament, the earliest followers of Jesus, cultivated a similar habit of hope, as did those in the OT. They believed that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection was God’s surprising response to their past slavery to evil, and death. They believed that Jesus’ resurrection, and the empty tomb, opened up a new door of hope, and life, for them.

The Apostle Peter said that Jesus’ death, and resurrection, opened up a living hope, that people can be reborn and become new and different kinds of humans. — “Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is so good, and by raising Jesus from death, He has given us new life and a hope that lives on” (1 Peter‬ ‭1:3‬ ‭CEV‬‬).

Our hope, today, is based on the risen Jesus, who has overcome death. And this hope isn’t for just humans, but is a foretaste of what God has planned for the whole universe.

Christian Hope is BOLD, waiting for humanity, and the whole universe, to be rescued, from evil and death, through Jesus.

Please understand that Biblical Hope isn’t optimism based on the odds — but it is a Hope for God to bring about our future that’s as surprising as a crucified man rising from the dead.

Christian Hope looks back to the risen Jesus in order to look forward.

Are you needing some extra hope today? Look back at all the miracles that Jesus performed — and Expect, with Great Hope, that Jesus will do some of those same things, for you.

‼️ HAVE HOPE ‼️

Have that Tense Expectation that the same things that the Lord did for the early believers, He’s going to do for you!

I’m believing with you!

Sincerely,

— Pastor Gene