As we begin a new year, we’re hoping for a good year ahead. But it’s more of a wish than an anticipation.
It’s like standing on the edge of the Sahara Desert looking across the miles of sand. You’re given a wheelbarrow and a shovel. Then comes the command: “We need all this sand removed. Once you’re done, you’ll get $50,000,000.”
You may hope you can somehow remove all that sand in one week. But you know you’re just wishing. If only you had two shovels, you could make it. But no way with one shovel.
You have $30,000 in debt on your credit card. You hope you will have it paid off soon by committing $100 as your monthly payment. But deep down inside, you know you’re only wishing. You know the only way you will get it paid off is if you live to be 266 years old.
You walk into Walmart hoping to find a 1962 Ferrari on sale. Everyone says you’re crazy, but you go ahead and search the store, just in case.
The Bible speaks of hope differently, like the following: “The LORD delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love.” (Psalm 147:11) Or this one from 1 Peter 1:3-4: “…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…”
Should we connect the hope described in these verses to the same hope we have in paying off an insane amount of debt? This is even described as a ‘living hope.’ The idea is it is a hope without end. That’s much different than most hopes. Once you’ve searched every aisle at WalMart, you realize they don’t have a 1962 Ferrari on sale. Your hope is dead. It’s like every Christmas morning when you discover Santa paid no attention whatsoever to your list. Can the guy not read?
The difference between ‘hope’ and ‘living hope’ is actually found in the word ‘hope.’ For believers in Christ, ‘hope’ is best described as anticipation. That’s what Psalm 147:11 indicates. It can be translated as ‘wait,’ which is exactly like anticipating. It’s an anticipation based on trust, which is so much in the realm of trust it can never fade away. Impressive!
We believers experience a ‘new birth.’ Unlike our physical birth, which will ultimately end in death, this new birth creates eternal life for every person who invites Jesus to his Savior. From the moment of our new birth, our living existence has gone beyond this earthly world. All we need do is anticipate it, filled with excitement and wonder.
Often, though, a new question worries us. This ‘new birth’ signifies all of a person’s sins have been completely forgiven and forgotten by God. This seems impossible to us. The astronomical number our sins equals the number of grains of sand in the Sahara Desert. How can anyone, including God, wipe out the enormous catalogue of sins we’ve created?
We make a promise to Him about how we plan to help Him by not making the catalogue even larger. But the next day, we find we have to make a new promise because the last one didn’t work out. And, doggone it, we find ourselves making the same promise on the third day.
Our ‘living hope’ is in danger of becoming a dying, hopeless wish.
Until we discover Jesus saying, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die…” (John 11:25-26)
The foundation of our ‘living hope’ isn’t found in us. We can have no anticipation in any ‘living hope’ we create. It is only found in Jesus, and we simply have to trust in Him. He fulfills His promise: “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
May your new year be filled with the best kind of hope, the one anticipating your future home. Let that hope walk with you throughout the year ahead.
When we were attending Immanuel Baptist in Monmouth, Dr. Stanley Toussaint from Dallas Theological Seminary came for a series of meetings and one of the things he said that has stuck with me all those years is, “hope” can be defined as, ‘expectation with desire’. He also said, that it isn’t ‘hope so’ but ‘know so’. That has been helpful to me….