What is Christian Hope?
“So it is impossible for God to lie for we know that his promise and his vow will never change! And now we have run into his heart to hide ourselves in his faithfulness. This is where we find his strength and comfort, for he empowers us to seize what has already been established ahead of time—an unshakable hope! We have this certain hope like a strong, unbreakable anchor holding our souls to God himself. Our anchor of hope is fastened to the mercy seat in the heavenly realm beyond the sacred threshold, and where Jesus, our forerunner has gone in before us…”
Hebrews 6:18-20 TPT
Because of Jesus—we have this certain hope—confident expectation!
God’s promises are faithful—as the scripture lets us know, it’s a place we can hide and be anchored.
Growing up on the prairies it’s hard to understand how or why an anchor works. But it’s interesting to note that there are permanent anchors—a mooring. Unchangeable. The kind of anchor we can count on being in the same location no matter how far we travel.
We know that there’s not much ‘unchangeable’ in the human experience and probably exactly why we lose our hope from time to time. We unmoor, lose trust in God’s promises, and get tossed about by the waves of circumstance.
We all live in a culture where values, morality, and worldview are constantly shifting. Live more than 20 years and you know that to be true from first-hand experience. When we focus on the waves (like Peter), we begin taking a stand on things that have no eternal purpose—we are unmoored.
“The writer to the Hebrews says, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”—Hebrews 10:23
Our hope—that is, our confident expectation—is not based on trends or indicators but in Jesus who is faithful.”[1]
Let us hold—a command, one you’ve shouted to your child/grandchild working their way across the monkey bars in the park. Simply because you don’t want to see them fall.
God, our father, asks you to hold on—to be steady and consistent.
Confident access to the throne behind the veil gives the believer the ability to hold unswerving confidence in God’s promises. The faith that you possess is your way of holding on. Remember the moments God came through, spoke a word, opened your eyes, answered a prayer, did a miracle, and saved your soul—the biggest miracle of all!
Anchors need to catch on something, they must be set into the seabed, while suction does its work from below, creating resistance that holds. That is what God’s promises are, and He will never fail to keep them. So our confidence in Him is well-founded and our profession of hope is one we can be confident of.
Christian hope is not based on you or me, our dreams or potential, but on God’s faithfulness! Nothing can shake your confidence when you are anchored to His promises—His word!
When darkness veils His lovely face I'll rest on His unchanging grace In every high and stormy day My anchor holds within the veil His oath, His covenant, His blood Support me in the whelming flood When all around my soul gives way He then is all my hope and stay —"On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand" by Edward Mote
[1] A Year of Hope by Rev. Wes Mills