Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints. – Ephesians 1:18
You don’t have to cross your fingers. You don’t have to be cautiously optimistic. You don’t have to wonder in uncertainty. You don’t have to have a glass half full disposition. You don’t have to fear the worst. You can have a real hope in this broken world with broken people even when life doesn’t work out the way you thought it would because you are certain it will work out for good. That’s what real hope is: a confident expectation of something good in your future. And it comes from Jesus alone when you trust in Him. This hope is based on the character, authority and power of Jesus to deliver all that He has promised to His followers in this life and, more importantly, in the life to come. When He says He will be with us in time of need, give to us all that we need, and come for us to put an end to our needs, we can be assured that He is able and faithful to do as He says today, tomorrow and forever. To the degree we are sure in this, we will be filled up with peace and assurance when we’re running low, renewed and refreshed with a spiritual energy when we’re running out, helped through difficulty and disappointment when we’re running down, and kept steadfast and confident when we feel like running away. This is our hope in Jesus: the best is yet to come. Let us believe it, expect it, anticipate it and await it to come true because Jesus said it’s true. Let us watch for the daily doses of His grace to appear when we need them. And let us regard the eternal pleasure of heaven with Him as something wonderful on the calendar that is certain to come at the appointed time. Because it is. Because it will.
