Friday, December 7, 2018

Advent Words: H is for Hope


H is for Hope

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure." 1 John 3:1-3

"For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ." Titus 2:11-13

"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, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter 1:3-5

The theme for the first week of Advent this year is Hope. The season of Advent is about waiting, longing and hope. Throughout the Advent season we read passages from the Old Testament of how the nation of Israel waited and longed for the Messiah. We too, are in a period of waiting and longing ~ "we wait for the blessed hope" ~ the second coming of Christ.



We anticipate a time when we will see God more clearly. A time when we will be fully like the Son - pure and holy - fully transformed. This is our "inheritance kept in heaven" that "can never perish, spoil or fade". This is what we wait and long for. In this we greatly rejoice!

Jesus is our living hope, and as we wait for His second coming, we have a call to live now as people of hope - "to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age". 



For God's people, hope is a promise, not a wish. Hope helps us live now in expectation of a glorious future. Our hope is living because our hope is in the living God!



Share your creative response to the Advent Words challenge in our private Facebook group  Join here:   https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wordschallengegroup/

If you belong to the Everyday Journal group that I co-lead with Valerie Sjodin and Bernice Hopper, Advent Words will be our theme for December.

Share on Instagram and other social media with the hashtag #adventwords2018.

Check out my Pinterest board for this challenge and see some of the wonderful and diverse creativity of Advent Words 2018 participants. https://www.pinterest.com/marynbtol/advent-words-2018-challenge/




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