My life (put) alongside God's word. Letting the future affect today section.
When a baby is born, parents, and other family members, may have a lot of hope for his or her future:
Will she get a good education?
Will he be happily married with a good family?
Will there be peace in the area he lives?
Must she go and live overseas in order to be safe?
Every Christian should have “Hope”
In Romans Paul writes that every Christian has a hope for the future. The presence (or absence) of this hope is a sign pointing to whether a person is truly Christian (or not). I am breaking these two verses into four sections:
“For in this hope we are saved.
But hope that is seen is no hope at all.
Who hopes for what he already has?
But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently”, Romans 8:24-25.
Hope because you are alive to God
1. The verses immediately before these open a window into the meaning of “this hope”. Christians have been born again by God the Holy Spirit. They have responded to His inner calling. They live their normal human lives, but are now alive to God, His words of direction, advice, warning and encouragement. Living like this, prompted always by God’s Word and Spirit, they know they are saved.
Hope does not focus on this world
2. Yet even Christians do not get everything they want straightaway!
Our world demands that we get things quickly. Some Christians have believed this lie for
themselves, over things like physical healings, monetary riches, even sinless living. The Christian’s true hope is for the future world, not this one.
Hope focuses on heaven
3. This phrase says the same as the second one, but in reverse. There is no need to hope for a fourth baby when you already have four! Why hope for a good-paying job when you have one that gives you enough to live on now?
Hope is able to wait for a long time, dealing with difficult situations
4. So, what is in our future? Verse 23 says we wait eagerly (keenly) to be adopted by God into His wonderful presence in heaven. We are now prepared to be there thanks to our Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ, but for now we wait on and in this world – because He wants us to. Our circumstances may be bad:
People treat one another badly, bombing from the air, invaders setting fire to homes, showing how badly human beings can behave to one another.
We must look into our own hearts as well as condemn others. We may sometimes trick another person to gain unfair advantage. God doesn’t like that either!
True Christians live Christianly (patiently) while awaiting the Lord Jesus Christ to command a loud trumpet blast. Then He will call us to be with Him, marking the end of this life and the start of the next.
Our hope, the promised coming of God’s heaven, will never disappoint us.
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