Day 49: How Do We Respond in Hope?
Romans 15:4
For everything that was written in former times was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope. {NET}
We want to end this week’s session by talking about hope. As Paul tells us above, the Scriptures were given to us to encourage us so that we may have hope. This week we have been considering some very heavy and somewhat difficult truths. But these truths are given to us so that we may hope. Since we have been thinking about the end of things, the end of our present life and the world to come, let’s end by thinking on some of the most incredible truths that are reality for all those who are “in Christ.”
God is Truly our Heavenly Father.
1 John 3:1-2
Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him. 3:2 Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.
As we are going to discuss in our next unit Walking in the Truth, in Christ, by faith, God accepts us as His beloved children! As His children, our Father has set some goals for us—that we be conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus, transformed into people who fully reflect His glory in all things. As John tells us above, this process will not be complete until we see Christ face to face, but it will happen. But how can we be sure this will happen? Consider this:
1 Corinthians 1:8-9
He [God The Father]will also strengthen you to the end, so that you will be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1:9 God is faithful; you were called by Him into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
When we think about the Parent/Child relationship and the process of growing and maturing, we must understand that it is the parent who has the responsibility of raising and training the child to become a mature human being. The same is true in our spiritual growth and maturing “in Christ.” God is truly our Heavenly Father and He is the one who takes responsibility for the growth and transformation of His children.
In this passage, Paul is addressing the Corinthian church, one of the most immature and sinful churches of the day. As Paul begins to speak to the issues they were facing, he is confident that the people in this church will be blameless on the Day of our Lord Jesus—the day of Judgment. How can Paul have this confidence? Because God the Father is Faithful!!! He is the one who raises His children to be who He desires them to be. Also, Jesus, with whom they have been called into fellowship (to share life with), is the One who has brought about the forgiveness and cleansing of their sins.
As Children we want to be faithful to our Father. We want to love Him with the same love that He gives us—genuine, divine love. But always we keep our hearts and minds captivated by the truth that His faithfulness to us is the foundation of our hope. We will fail and be faithless at times and sin. Yet our Heavenly Father will not abandon us. He will treat us as His children. He will do whatever is necessary to make sure that we arrive at our final destination: blameless in His presence.
Father-God will Finish what He starts.
Philippians 1:6
I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
God our Father works in Christ through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit to find us in our lostness, offer us new life in our spiritual deadness, and peace in our rebellion against Him. When we accept and receive His gifts by faith, freely given to us in Christ, we begin to experience His transforming work in our lives. Notice what Paul says above: God our Father who begins this work in us will also be the one who perfects or completes this work in us. We can have hope because God our Father will finish what He starts.
We focus our Hope on Jesus.
Read 1 John 3:1-2 that we just read again. Now add this last verse to it:
1 John 3:3
And everyone who has this hope in Him [Jesus] purifies himself just as He [Jesus] is pure.
KEY Definition:
Hope is the confident expectation that life will turn out well because of who God is and what He has promised. Hope is built on the foundation of His past works, yet always looks forward to the future completion and perfection of all His promises.
We have heard about some of what God has done for us in the past in Christ. We hear about what He will do for us in Christ. Because we know these things, we have the confident expectation that because of His faithfulness our lives will turn out well, or better than well—glorious. Now in the present as we choose to place our confidence in Jesus we keep our hope focused forward on Him. As we keep this focus, we are purified as John says. It is impossible to be enslaved by the corruption of sin when we are completely captivated by the glory of Jesus. Let us set our focus on Jesus.
What are some practical ways that you can implement these truths into your daily life? In what ways can you keep your focus on Jesus?
Scan back over or reflect on this week’s reading and ask yourself:
1. What have I learned that gave me new ideas and images?
2. How do these truths call me to change the way I am thinking?
3. How do these truths call me to trust Father-God more?
*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.
