Taking Hold of HOPE

November 04, 2016

It is what sustains the soul. It is the lighthouse in dark storms and the lifeboat in troubled seas. It's what keeps you afloat when issues around you seem overwhelming. Hope.

My grandad used to sit on his porch and in response to some questions would say, ""I hope so,"" i.e., ""I'm not sure it will happen, but I wish it would."" Biblical hope is far different. It is the assured confidence that what God has promised He will deliver. And, our hope as believers is based on the “sure and steadfast” promises of God.

For instance, our eternal hope is in heaven. God has made promises for those who have trusted Him that we will leave this life and have an eternal, perfect, glorious home with Him. It is our confident hope. This hope carries us in this life and is our source of peace during the inevitable ordeal of death.

But it’s possible to have hope available, but not active in our lives. There is a step we must take. We must lay hold of hope. If not, we feel hopeLESS.

Hebrews 6 reminds us of this, and it is something we need right now in the midst of the seemingly hopeless moral and spiritual decline we see all around us in our nation.

""In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."" (Hebrews 6:17-20)

Why do I have hope right now? Because God has made me promises—over 7,000 of them in His Word! I have the confident assurance that, regardless of what happens around me …

my needs will be met,
my future is secure,
God’s grace is sufficient for whatever is ahead,
regardless of what happens politically, the spiritual realities of my life will not change,
the church will not die, in fact, the gates of hell will not prevail against her
... and on and on and on!

Lift up your head today. Take hold of the hope set before you and anchor your soul!

Also in Graceful Truth

A NEAR SIX-DECADE TESTIMONY OF THE VALUE AND JOY OF SIMPLY READING THE BIBLE EVERY DAY

January 01, 2025

So this morning, January 1, 2025, I rise early once again. I will enter into the throne room before the Father, because the Son has made a way for me to come into this “grace in which I now stand.” I will open the Word God has written and preserved for me so I could have it in my hands. I will ask the precious Holy Spirit to teach me, showing me things which “eye has not seen and ear has not heard” that have been prepared for me. And I will have the glorious privilege, once again, of communing with God.