Hope

By Abby Davila, 5th & 6th Grade Director

What do you want to be when you grow up?  That question always perplexed me as a child.  How was I to know as an unexperienced, uninformed youth what singular profession I would like to dedicate my life to?  I had yet to tap into certain passions, not to mention had yet to have life-changing experiences which would forever alter my perspective on the world and my place in it.  But sure, let my adolescent self choose from the 5 professions that I sort of understand, including the fan favorites: teacher, doctor, and pilot.  I didn’t want to commit to a profession that wouldn’t come true for me.  The pressure was too great!

Perhaps I was on to something as that overly-analytical child.  Maybe deep-down I understood that I couldn’t center my expectations around things that I did not already know to be true.  I didn’t want to put all of my eggs into one basket without knowing, without a doubt, that the basket would be the correct one.  

For this same reason, I cringe every time I have used the word “hope” lately.  I hope to see you soon.  I hope to be able to make that appointment.  I hope someone finds a cure quickly.  I hope… Would my hopes come true?

Biblical hope is not a finger-crossing wish or desire.  Biblical hope has no sense of naïve optimism. Biblical hope is a confident expectation.  It’s a hope based on things already known to be true, things that you know will happen.  But in a world full of uncertainty and living in uncharted territory, what can we confidently hope for?  

Biblical hope doesn’t look to our circumstances for answers.  Hope includes waiting on God to do what He says He will do.  Hope looks ahead.  We know that God will accomplish what He says He will accomplish.  God’s character is faithful and true.  So, I know that I can count on God’s promises to be true. I can confidently hope that God will bring to fruition what He has promised.    

Yet the question remains, what can I count on to be true?  What has God actually said that He would do?  In my search for Biblical promises I stumbled across this little gem of a passage.  

1 Peter 1:3-6 (NIV)
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”

I love how this passage confirms what we already know to be true.  Hope can live amidst distressing situations. Our hope can be fully alive and thriving because Jesus conquered death and we have new life in Him.  We can have hope because we look forward with confident expectation to the day that God will fully rescue us.  We can be a joyful people even when our circumstances are perplexing and uncertain.  We can fix our hope completely on the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13).  Our hope is future-focused but it brings comfort and joy in the present.  

I don’t have to know what my professional future, my personal circumstances, or the global future will hold.  I can hope in God.  I can be confident that He is with me.  I can hold to God’s promises because He is trustworthy.  What promises will you place your hope in?