For We Are Saved By Hope

This statement is a truth the Lord wants us to see. It is a life-saving passage. It keeps us together when the world is falling apart.

Romans 8:24 “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

One thing people can’t get hold of is hope. There is none in material things; they produce false hope.  We’re fresh out of Christmas. There was an excited hope. You hoped you would get what you wanted. When you opened the present, and it was just what you hoped, that hope became reality.

It’s a scary time. People have no hope. Faith is the mechanism of hope. Because there is a God in heaven we have made it this far. We had hopes and dreams for 2009. One of them was to see another year. That’s now a reality. We’re coming into 2010 without some things we had last year. A year ago we had less age. We may have had better health. We may have been better off financially. We all enter 2010 without things we had. We lose each passing year.  We may not have obtained some things we counted on, but we enter with far more that we did last year. If we have grown spiritually, we are closer to the Lord. Think of all the miracles God did last year. We’re entering this year with the same God. We don’t know what will happen, but we’ll make it through by hope. Some things we hoped for may not have come to fruition, but what God wanted for us in 2009 came to pass. With hope we’ll see what God intends in 2010.

It’s the Father’s will that all be saved. It’s his will that the ones gone astray come back to him. He hates it when bad things happen, but these are the downside of living in Adam’s race. He knows our failures and successes. Our prayer should be “Lord, show me the mistakes. Show me which way to go.” Our first wish, our first hope should be that we’re taken care of by God. Hope saves us. Hope makes things bearable.  Since the day we were born we’ve had hope in something, even in the Lord. We’ve never been without it. Our hope for each day is tangible. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Evidence is what we can see. Hope it the same; it’s real. Hope  for something is as good as having it. Though not in our hands, we have it. That present was yours even though it was unopened. It’s the same with God.  It may be a while before we’re out of debt; it may be a while before the trumpet sounds; it may be a while before we get a new body, a new home, or visibly see Jesus.  We now have the reality of seeing him. We already experience him. We touch him, and he touches us.  It will not be a great deal of difference in seeing them. We already sit in heavenly places.

If we had a smooth and easy way, then what would we hope for? There is coming a time when hope will not be ended but fulfilled. We can’t wait, but we have to. Romans 15:13 says “now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”  Hope is who God is.  In this verse God is the Yahweh, Jehovah God. Without him we have nothing to hope for. This Hope is mine; this Hope is yours.  We believe that we may abound in Hope.

We may have good days. We may feel worse than we did. We may think the country is going down. 2010 is not the booger we think. God is God even now. We can’t help or do anything about what’s going to happen. Why worry about it. The Bible says to take no thought of tomorrow and what it will bring. God cares for the sparrows; he’ll take care of us. Why? He is the God of our Hope.  Verse 25 says “if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” It teaches us how to trust when we can’t see ahead. It helps us to go on, to look ahead. It helps us to be patient.

I have to agree with Paul. Verse 28 of this same chapter says “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” God takes care of us. We’re saved by Hope. It’s not my hope but the God of Hope.

We need to cling to the Savior of Hope. The tighter we cling, the more tangible Hope is. The tighter we cling, the more we have what we’ve been promised for the future. You see, Hope of the Lord is the same as having it.