Hope: it’s something we are all meant to do. Hope: it’s a joyful, strong confidence and sure expectation. There is nothing spineless or anemic about Biblical hope. Hope is not wishful thinking or delusional dreaming. 

Hope is an assurance of a better future, a looking forward to something glorious. 

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

The greatest thing we hope for is the glory to be with and see Jesus Christ. Christ in you is the hope of glory. Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection we have a sure hope, a living hope, a better hope than anything this world can give, and a blessed hope of Him coming again.

This groaning world under sin’s curse always leaves us longing for more. If we have really learned to understand our own hearts and this world, we see that what we really want cannot be fully had in this life. 

CS Lewis deals with this in his chapter, HOPE, in Mere Christianity when we writes, “There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give you what you really want, but they never quite keep their promise.” Whether its marriage, a job, a song, a car or a house, and Lewis concludes, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world.” 

And we were! 

This is the reality. We ultimately were not made for this earth. We were made to fellowship with God in a holy environment, but sin has messed everything up. 

So now we hope for something better, heaven itself, where we will see Jesus. 

So while in this life we have this hope, in the mean time, we are told that there will be pressure-packed, tribulation-laced, and trial-filled days. Expect it!

So yes, in the meantime, we have to deal with war, pandemics and virus’s.

Romans 5:2-5 starts with hope and finishes with hope. Read this comforting passage! In between hope and hope are tribulations, patience, and experience. Hope is like the first jewel in this spiritual chain reaction. 

Paul says, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed.

Hope is the jewel that gives to us the right outlook toward the pressures and pandemics of this world to carry on in love; it gives us a vision to see beyond the storm to what we were really made for: fellowship with God in heaven for all eternity.

So hope, and don’t be ashamed. Hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit in your. Hope, because we are loved by God. Hope, for one day soon we will see Jesus! So dear friends, keep hope through the Corona Crisis.