If you’ve spent any time in the business world, you’ve probably heard someone say, “Hope is not a strategy.” It’s a valid saying when it comes to planning for things we’d like to get done, but it’s a terrible adage when it’s applied to the Christian walk.
In fact, hope is the essence of our walk with Christ. When it comes to salvation, hope is the only strategy.
For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
… we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love...
Dante Alighieri profoundly wrote in his famous "Divine Comedy - Inferno" that the gates of Hell bear the moniker, "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here."
Hope is a balm to your weary heart and soul. As you think about the great hope within us, be encouraged and allow it to fill you with joyous expectation. It may feel like the world is out of control, but we know the One who still holds it all. Every day that passes brings us nearer to the day of His appearing!
The message below is pretty awesome. Although it was given in the 1980s, it seems even more valid and applicable today....