Hope’s Enduring Power
Hope’s Enduring Power
“and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
Romans 5:5 (ESV)
This living hope which burns as a lamp within His own remains bright and influential in the hearts of those who know its power. It is a hope that holds us fast, unwavering, and undaunted through the testings of life. It rests upon the power of Love received through the Holy Spirit; it is the breath of God Himself. He has not only given us a hope by which we purify ourselves, but it also will not bring shame into our lives.
“And everyone having this hope on Him
purifies himself even as that One is pure..”
1 John 3:3 (LITV)
The Hope born of God far transcends that of our future hope of heaven. It stirs the heart to the reality of His resurrection Life becoming ours in the life we now live. There is an unconscious pursuit of purity and holiness for this hope to be realized. This pursuit results from His hope imparted to us in the Person of Christ. Jesus Christ is the source of our Faith, our Hope, and the corresponding power of His Love being worked into our lives through the Holy Spirit.
There is no hope or power to access such a Love apart from our union in Christ Jesus.
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“The apostolic church thought more about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ than about death and heaven. The early Christians were looking, not for a cleft in the ground called a grave but for a cleavage in the sky called Glory.”
– Alexander MacLaren
BT
Yes! Hope has us, here and hereafter in the holy, happy, highlands of heaven because we are more than conquerors over all conditions and circumstances in Christ Who Is Love, in His stainlessly sinless, severely suffering, sufficiently saving, splendorously sanctifying Self, doing altogether compassionatey and completely for us that which we nor anyone else could never have done for ourselves.
Galatians 5:6 AMP
5 And because you [really] are [His] sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba! Father!”
1 John 4;8,16 AMP
8 The one who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love. [He is the originator of love, and it is an enduring attribute of His nature.] 9 By this the love of God was displayed in us, in that God has sent His [One and] only begotten Son [the One who is truly unique, the only One of His kind] into the world so that we might live through Him.
16 We have come to know [by personal observation and experience], and have believed [with deep, consistent faith] the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides continually in him.
1 Corinthians 13:13
13 And now there remain: faith [abiding trust in God and His promises], hope [confident expectation of eternal salvation], love [unselfish love for others growing out of God’s love for me], these three [the choicest graces]; but the greatest of these is love.
Romans 8:18 AMP
18 For I consider [from the standpoint of faith] that the sufferings of the present life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us!
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
16 Therefore we do not become discouraged [spiritless, disappointed, or afraid]. Though our outer self is [progressively] wasting away, yet our inner self is being [progressively] renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary, light distress [this passing trouble] is producing for us an eternal weight of glory [a fullness] beyond all measure [surpassing all comparisons, a transcendent splendor and an endless blessedness]! 18 So we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen; for the things which are visible are temporal [just brief and fleeting], but the things which are invisible are everlasting and imperishable.