Hope Secured!

As most of you know I send out a weekly "Be Encouraged" email on Monday mornings. This week I sent out a quote by R.C. Sproul that spoke about the hope we have in Christ Jesus.

"Hope is called the anchor of the soul, because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a “wish” (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made."

As I sat and thought about the reality of the hope we have in Christ I was richly encouraged. In a world that promotes wishful thinking and dreaming, hoping, and fantasy land realities, certainty is not a commonality. The world is changing, cultures are changing, people are changing, circumstances are changing, you as an individual are changing. Hope is something the soul longs for, desires deep within, and looks to find...for the Christian TRUE HOPE is right at our fingertips. We have all the riches of a blessed, SURE hope in Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 6:17-20 reads, "Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.."

I love this passage in Hebrews because it reveals one of the most amazing attributes of our amazing God, the reality that He is UNCHANGING. He is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. What He promises, He fulfills, to the end. The work that He began in you as His child, He will complete. The plan of redemption He wrote from before the foundation of time, He will accomplish. And victory will fully be revealed in the end as Satan is cast into the pit and Jesus rightfully receives all glory and honor and praise.

We have a hope that should be, as the writer of Hebrews says, an ANCHOR for the soul. Think about an anchor, its purpose, the fact that it is used to hold a mighty ship in one spot, not to be moved by anything. That is what our hope should do, keep is steadfast and immovable in Him. Our hope is secure, when He called us to Himself we were sealed with the Holy Spirit and are His FOREVER. And Jesus bought us with a price, the most precious price of all, His own life so that He can intercede on our behalf before the Father in heaven. And because of that we have an eternal future, a promise of life forever with the God of the universe, in perfection, what joy that should bring us!

This hope is SURE, GUARANTEED, PROMISED, PERFECT; and that should give us assurance, stability and the strength to live the lives we are called to live. Knowing these things should motivate us to holiness and godliness. The hope we have should enable us to get up in the morning even when the world around us is crashing down or changing in ways we don't like, even when our circumstances might not be in our fleshly favor, even when we don't know what the day holds, because we have a most certain hope, it is SECURE!