“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

1 Peter 1:3
“I hope to get an A on my midterm exam.” “I hope I’m offered the job.” “I hope no one finds out about this.”

We use the word hope today completely differently than how it was used in the Bible. When you or I speak of hope, we typically are expressing a wish or optimism about something that is uncertain. But when we say that we have hope in Christ, it means that we know for sure—beyond the shadow of a doubt and beyond positive thinking—that Jesus won the victory for us. From the believer’s perspective, hope is something of certainty that we look forward to. It is living in constant expectation.

When Paul speaks of it in Scripture, he knows the message of hope will get his readers through the day. How else could he himself have faced the opposition, persecution, and hardship that his life in Christ presented to him? Yet Paul’s message focuses on things eternal, rather than the struggles of this world.

Today we fix our eyes on things unseen because our hope in Christ is the only way we can be confident in this life and in the next.



Scripture Focus

2 Corinthians 4:7-18

Insight

When you use the word “hope,” think of the divine hope you have in Christ. That’s a hope of which you can be certain.

Bible In A Year

  • Numbers 16
  • Psalm 69
  • John 10

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