H-O-P-E

This was on the "Courageous" calendar that sits in our bathroom last week. And I've been thinking about it since. I've even changed wording in emails because I tend to overuse h-o-p-e. I use it as a passing thought. I hope you have a good day. Or I hope you feel better. And I really mean it. But then I read this: Hope is not a fragile wish or a dream that fades with time -- it's an anchor of the soul, held secure by the unchangeable promises of God. I'm left feeling like I throw around such a powerful word way too often and use it out of its everlasting context.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. 

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. {Romans 5:1-11}

I hope you realize that's real hope. And it's a hope worth holding on to in all moments of life, not just the casual conversational ones. It's everlasting. Like Andy Dufresne wrote to his friend after escaping Shawshank Prison, "Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies." This hope God promises us as we put our trust in Him is best kind of good thing. 

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