Spirit.”

 

What is hope made of?  According to our opening Scripture the God of hope is able to fill us with all joy and peace in believing, and it is also able to endue us with power from the Holy Spirit.

 

We could say that hope is the key ingredient that allows us to live a life that is confident and secured in the promises that God has given to each and everyone of us.

 

When all else is lost, hope remains!

 

As a matter of fact, hope even triumphs in those who feel that they have lost all hope—when against all hope, they hope anyway.

 

Romans 4:18 “Who, contrary to hope, in hope believed…”

 

We get a sense then, that hope is that indispensable gift that remains, even after all else is lost.

 

So that if we had to choose which of the many qualities that makes up hope is the greatest, undoubtedly, we would all agree that the fact that hope can never be truly lost is the greatest of all of its qualities.

 

We could say then that hope is like a default setting that has been placed inside each and everyone of us. No matter how much we mess up and deviate from God’s original plan for our lives and therefore end up losing everything, we can always turn to the default setting of hope and start all over again.

 

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

 

The seed of hope brings forth a blooming faith. Were it not for hope, no one could start a new life after wasting a previous one.

 

In order for a new beginning to be successful it has to start in a positive note, so hope brings not only faith, but joy and peace as well.

 

We could say then that hope is a repellent against bitterness, anger, and fear, all those things that would hinder a new beginning.

 

Now here is a mystery, how can hope and a new beginning be part of my daily Christian walk?

 

1 Corinthians 15:31 “I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.”

 

The salvation of our souls requires that we die daily to ourselves and that we also die daily to our own selfish desires.

 

The only way that a person is able to truly die daily to their own self-interests is if they live their lives in the hope that Christ’s plan for their lives is better for them, than the plan that this world is offering them.

 

So that our hope of a better life from Christ, brings to us the daily dose of faith that its needed to make it through each day, no matter what evil that day may bring with it.

 

But also, if we die daily, that means that we start anew daily. So that hope springs new and eternal every morning, leaving yesterday’s failures, and the thoughts about them, behind.

 

Lamentations 3:22-23 “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”

 

And that is the source of our joy and peace, the fact that we get a brand new start each and every day, for His compassions for us never fail.

 

Think of a steep climb and of reaching the top of the hill as the goal.

 

At the base we start with two climbers, one is strong, powerful, and highly skilled in climbing difficult terrains, his only flaw is that if he falls just once, he has been known to give up the climb and quit.

 

The other is prone to falling down, and not very skilled as a climber, but he has one great quality going for him, no matter how many time he falls, he will not give up the climb!

 

Human nature gives up in the face of failure, however, hope thrives in the face of failure, for it does not carry failure over from one day to another, it sees each new day as a brand new start with an opportunity to conquer unconquered ground.

 

Psalm 119:147 “I rise before the dawning of the morning, and cry for help; I hope in Your word.”

 

The essence of hope, is that hope, is the essence of God and His Word.

 

Romans 15:4 “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience (perseverance) and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”

 

It does not really matter what our last fall might be before the Lord returns to take us all home, the only thing that will matter then will be the fact that even in the face of our daily failings it was found that….

 

THEREFORE WE HOPED!