Advent Words Day 6 ~ Hope

 

Day 6: Hope

“…while we wait for the blessed hope – “Titus 2:13

The traditional theme for the first week of Advent is hope. The season of Advent is about waiting, longing and hope. Just as the nation of Israel in the Old Testament waited and longed for the coming of the promised Messiah, we too, are in a period of waiting and longing ~ "we wait for the blessed hope" ~ the second coming of Christ.

Biblical hope is the assurance – the joyous expectation – of our future destiny. Hope is always the expectation of something good. Paul tells us in the letter to the Colossians that hope “is stored up for you in heaven”. (Colossians 1:5) This blessed hope includes all that goes with the gift of eternal life – God’s eternal presence, eternal glory, a resurrected body, eternal rewards.

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!

“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 3:2-3

“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

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!

 

Paul shows us in Titus 2:13 that what we wait for is a person – “our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ”, and in that person are all the promises of God. Augustine said, 

“Hope is that spiritual grace which sustains the heart until the promise is received.”

Hope is what enables us to wait.  We wait, living by grace, focused on glory.

Share how you express today's word on social media using #adventwords2021. You can also share in the Words Challenge Fcebook Group.