Week of Hope – Thursday
Certainty of Hope
God knows full well that hope tethers us to Him as nothing else will. And being tethered to a trustworthy and faithful God makes all the difference in the world! Our end is secure, our hope is certain!
Deborah L. Roeger, The Power of Hope, p. 243
Your Call and Hope
While Abraham’s call was no doubt a surprise, it was a call in which God would bless him and his descendants. There would be difficulties to be sure, but in the grand scheme of God’s plan, Abraham would be able to look back on his summons and know that it was a good thing he left his home to travel to the place where God would lead. The call of God reveals that there are indeed wonderful divine possibilities in a world where it is thought to be impossible. Such possibilities offer hope, not only for the one called, but for all those who will be touched by that call.
Allan R. Bevere, The Character of Our Discontent, pp. 4-5
The call of God is never for the individual’s sake alone. Abraham’s children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and so on through the generations all the way through the centuries would be blessed because of Abraham’s obedience in going west. We must never forget that God always has more in mind than just us.
Hope in a Child
The Child in Mary’s womb would become the hope of the world and would “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). The joy contained in this promise was such that when Elizabeth was visited by her cousin, Mary, and was informed by the Holy Spirit that Mary would give birth to the Messiah, Elizabeth’s unborn baby leaped inside her womb (Luke 1:41)! Mary was so overjoyed that she sang, “‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior’” (vs. 46-47). Mary and Joseph were willing to suffer the stigma of Jesus’ birth because they had a lot to look forward to that would be “out of this world!”
Stephen S.J. Hill, What’s God Really Like, p. 18
… The sacrifice that paid the ransom was perfect and needed no additional sacrifices, so there is no cost to us who have been saved and given new hope.
World Prayr, Walking in God’s Grace, p. 7
There grace is defined. God’s love is the reason He has given us hope, where only eternal separation from God once existed. It is a hope of freedom that comes not from merit but from sacrifice, and not our sacrifice, but Christ’s. The hope and freedom is offered to condemned slaves, not because they earned it, but precisely because they could not earn it.
