Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Jan/87

Contributor - Rev. Louis R. Harvey

Title - Hope from a Christian Point of View

Topic - Hope

Hope! A word that is used so often. A word that is in almost everyone's vocabulary. This word has very special meaning to every mature Christian, and yet to the world around us, the word "hope", when it is used, always carries a questioning, a doubting, an uncertainty of the future.

In the town where I served my first Pastorate there lived an elderly man who was highly respected as a community leader. He had been an elder in a neighbouring church for many, many years. The townspeople looked up to him. Yet I was deeply shocked one day to hear his answer to the question "Are you a Christian?" This gentleman after being in the church most of his very long life could only answer "I hope sd'. He carried much doubt about his faith. He was uncertain about his relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. He could only answer, "I hope so".

Hope is a foundation word for every mature Christian. The apostle, in writing to the Church at Rome. gives them this beautiful and powerful benediction and blessing:

"And may the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace

in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit

you may abound in hope."

What a great name for our God! "The God of Hope"! The Christian's hope is certainty, fact, the reality of life! And this all is given to us by the God of Hope.

The Hope of the believers in Jesus Christ has to do with an unseen future, and yet with a future that is predictable and knowable. John, expressing his "hope" in Jesus Christ said, "Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like Him" (John 3:2).

The Bible describes our "hope" in a variety of ways. Let me list a few of them for you:

1. Our Hope is related to the Resurrection (Acts 23:5)

2. Our Hope is God's fulfilled promises (Acts 26:6-7)

3. Our Hope is related to righteousness (Gal. 5:5)

4. Our Hope is the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Col. 1:23)

5. Our Hope is the sharing of God's glory (Rom. 5:2)

6. Our Hope is the salvation given to us by Jesus Christ (Thess. 5:8)

7. Our Hope is the glorious inheritance that is ours in Jesus (Eph. 1:18)

8. Our Hope is eternal life, the full possession of it (Titus 1:2, 3:7)

The mature Christian lives in a hope and expresses a hope that produces a life characterized by joy and peace.

The New Testament uses three adjectives to describe the believers hope:

1. a "good" hope (Thess. 2:16)

1. a "blessed" hope (Titus 2:13)

3. a "living" hope (I Peter 1:3)

As we look forward to the uncertainties of a new year, let the "God of Hope" fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope". Or it can be stated with an often-quoted phrase - "I do not know what the future holds, but I know the "God of Hope" who holds my future". My hope is Jesus Christ!

The Rev. Edward Mote penned these words which so beautifully express the believer s hope:

"My hope is built on nothing less

then Jesus blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ the solid rock I stand

All other ground is sinking sand."

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