Hope: An Expectation Of Something Yet To Be
Bible Study
Toward a Hope-Filled Life
A Bible Study
Object:
Hope, as it has been pointed out, is in many ways the expectation that there is something yet to happen in our lives or the lives of those we love. Hope implies a sense of anticipation, a feeling that we do not have everything in life figured out just yet. It is that kind of feeling of expectation that allows us to feel a sense of courage in the presence of doubt and despair. The thing that we always need to guard against is that we are not putting all of our eggs into one basket. What do I mean by that? As frail human beings, we are prone to hope for things based on some unrealistic desire or information. As we have learned in previous chapters, hope is a God-given gift, but not a heavenly buffet of wishes granted as if we were children reaching out for a favorite toy.
In point of fact, we have already defined the differences between hope, wishes, and promises. It is over time that the wonderful power of hope becomes better understood. Only slowly is it possible for the real importance of hope to be found and embraced so that it becomes the hope that carries and sustains us in all manner of life's situations.
And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
-- Romans 5:3-5
It is inevitable that we will, as human beings, set our hope on that which is unrealistic and probably offers momentary satisfaction. Yet, as we have seen in the struggle of life, be it flying geese or people struggling to find fulfillment in life, the hope that God gives us will transform our lives in such a way that no quick fixes are seriously investigated.
However, in some ways, there is a paradox in all of this. The paradox is that hope, like seeds in the winter, must sometimes die in order to find life. Hope is often born out of the bleakest of circumstances. Probably the most visible example of this hope being born out of the bleakest of circumstances can be found in the apostle Peter.
Peter, as most of us know, stumbled from time to time. He, like most of us, was not a perfect person. In fact, Peter made some monumental errors in judgment and because of that he, more than most biblical characters, has become the standard for falling down and getting up again ready to go. This Peter, the one who fails and succeeds, is the one who shows us "the expectation of something yet to be."
Hope is a very necessary commodity for the well-being of human life. Admittedly, people are looking in a lot of wrong places to find hope in today's world. All you need to do is wait in line at the local convenience store while people spend their hard-earned money on lottery tickets to understand how desperate people are to find hope. People are always hoping that their ship is going to come in. Peter's life proves that just because hopes get crushed from time to time, does not mean that all hope has been lost.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you.
-- 1 Peter 1:3-4
Did you catch that? A living hope -- a life-giving hope -- a hope that is sure and steadfast that is rooted and grounded in a living relationship with God. Why is this hope labeled, "living"? It is because it is the true hope that comes from God. Too often, hope is placed in the wrong source. We place our hope in the things we hold dear, and that is just being human. For instance, we put our hope in ourselves; we put our hope in our partners; we put our hope in our work; we put our hope in our doctors; but ultimately, our hope will only come to life when it is first placed in the source of all hope, and that is Jesus Christ!
Hope finds expression in the "yet to be." Peter showed us through his life and the experiences of his life that are chronicled in the Bible, that hope has a life into the future. We have an inheritance of hope and that is gifted to us from God. It is an inheritance that we have not earned! That is the tremendous thing about hope, especially as it is given to us in Jesus Christ. We did nothing to earn or even deserve such hope. Maybe you have seen the bumper sticker that proclaims, "We're spending our children's inheritance." The interesting thing about the hope that God gives to us is that we can never, ever, spend it all! Imagine a hope that will last a lifetime and then an eternal lifetime.
It should be a comfort to us all that this hope will keep us going through any and all trials that may come our way. There are problems that lurk around every corner in every life. To my knowledge, we were never promised a life free of trouble. We all, no matter who we are or where we come from, get seduced into thinking that somehow we are going to get through life without hitting the speed bumps that accompany every life. We will have financial troubles; we will have people break promises or act terribly toward us; or, our children will not be perfect. Just because we think we have done the things we should have done to have a good life grants us no exemptions. Life is not easy.
All the trials that come that seem so insurmountable at the time, can be overcome. Those people who rub you the wrong way, those illnesses which debilitate you and rob you of strength, those losses that sadden you and madden you, may just be the process through which you travel to better appreciate the hope given us in Jesus Christ. Often it is in the midst of disappointments that hope shines the brightest. If all the trials of life make you angry, and you lose yourself in that anger, then hope is lost, or, at the very least, buried in your own misplaced sense of self. Because, you see, it is not God's intention that you be unhappy. God wants all of his creation to find itself in harmony with God and with one another. When we allow the disappointments of life to overcome us, we allow ourselves to extinguish the expectation of something in our lives that is yet to come to full growth and maturation.
The expectation of "something yet to be" is hope realized in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
-- 1 Peter 1:6-7
We have not been blessed to have seen Jesus face-to-face, only through the eyes of hope and faith. We have the hope that we will see him face-to-face when that expectation of something yet to be comes into our eternal existence. But even now, without physically seeing him, we love him. There is a bottom line for the person who lives a Christian life. What does it mean to be a Christian? It means to love Jesus and to love God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. It is to love him in spite of the fact that we have not seen him.
Down deep within the recesses of our souls a sense of joy is stored that cannot be removed and cannot be contained. It is a joy that is beyond natural; it is a joy that is beyond emotional; it is a joy that has been planted in our relationship with God, and nothing can destroy that which God has placed within us.
Those of us who call ourselves Christians should be the most joyous people on earth. Every part of our lives should radiate our joy at being part of the community of faith. Our hope should show through everything we do and say. Everything about us should speak to others about whose we are and why we are. It should tell others that we know that God loves us with an everlasting love, and that love can put a smile on anyone's face!
When we live our lives reflecting the expectation that good things will happen, we begin to live the life with which we have been gifted. It is a life where your actions and your words match. It is a life that says to anyone who will listen that we are filled with an "expectation of something yet to be!"
Questions For Your Consideration
1. What is the anticipation that having hope implies?
2. How do you find courage in hope? What are we to do with the courage we realize through hope?
3. In what ways are you and the apostle Peter alike? Find and discuss a biblical example that substantiates your thoughts.
4. What is paradoxical about hope?
5. How has life seduced you into thinking that you really were "better prepared for life" than you really are?
6. Look up John 14 and find the verses that give you an understanding of eternal hope as found in Jesus.
7. How do you manifest hope in your life of faith? How does that hope become visible?
8. How is it possible to love Jesus without ever having sat with him and talked with him one-on-one?
9. In your own life, how do others experience the hope you have in your life?
10. How can you help someone else to feel that same sense of hope in their life?
In point of fact, we have already defined the differences between hope, wishes, and promises. It is over time that the wonderful power of hope becomes better understood. Only slowly is it possible for the real importance of hope to be found and embraced so that it becomes the hope that carries and sustains us in all manner of life's situations.
And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
-- Romans 5:3-5
It is inevitable that we will, as human beings, set our hope on that which is unrealistic and probably offers momentary satisfaction. Yet, as we have seen in the struggle of life, be it flying geese or people struggling to find fulfillment in life, the hope that God gives us will transform our lives in such a way that no quick fixes are seriously investigated.
However, in some ways, there is a paradox in all of this. The paradox is that hope, like seeds in the winter, must sometimes die in order to find life. Hope is often born out of the bleakest of circumstances. Probably the most visible example of this hope being born out of the bleakest of circumstances can be found in the apostle Peter.
Peter, as most of us know, stumbled from time to time. He, like most of us, was not a perfect person. In fact, Peter made some monumental errors in judgment and because of that he, more than most biblical characters, has become the standard for falling down and getting up again ready to go. This Peter, the one who fails and succeeds, is the one who shows us "the expectation of something yet to be."
Hope is a very necessary commodity for the well-being of human life. Admittedly, people are looking in a lot of wrong places to find hope in today's world. All you need to do is wait in line at the local convenience store while people spend their hard-earned money on lottery tickets to understand how desperate people are to find hope. People are always hoping that their ship is going to come in. Peter's life proves that just because hopes get crushed from time to time, does not mean that all hope has been lost.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you.
-- 1 Peter 1:3-4
Did you catch that? A living hope -- a life-giving hope -- a hope that is sure and steadfast that is rooted and grounded in a living relationship with God. Why is this hope labeled, "living"? It is because it is the true hope that comes from God. Too often, hope is placed in the wrong source. We place our hope in the things we hold dear, and that is just being human. For instance, we put our hope in ourselves; we put our hope in our partners; we put our hope in our work; we put our hope in our doctors; but ultimately, our hope will only come to life when it is first placed in the source of all hope, and that is Jesus Christ!
Hope finds expression in the "yet to be." Peter showed us through his life and the experiences of his life that are chronicled in the Bible, that hope has a life into the future. We have an inheritance of hope and that is gifted to us from God. It is an inheritance that we have not earned! That is the tremendous thing about hope, especially as it is given to us in Jesus Christ. We did nothing to earn or even deserve such hope. Maybe you have seen the bumper sticker that proclaims, "We're spending our children's inheritance." The interesting thing about the hope that God gives to us is that we can never, ever, spend it all! Imagine a hope that will last a lifetime and then an eternal lifetime.
It should be a comfort to us all that this hope will keep us going through any and all trials that may come our way. There are problems that lurk around every corner in every life. To my knowledge, we were never promised a life free of trouble. We all, no matter who we are or where we come from, get seduced into thinking that somehow we are going to get through life without hitting the speed bumps that accompany every life. We will have financial troubles; we will have people break promises or act terribly toward us; or, our children will not be perfect. Just because we think we have done the things we should have done to have a good life grants us no exemptions. Life is not easy.
All the trials that come that seem so insurmountable at the time, can be overcome. Those people who rub you the wrong way, those illnesses which debilitate you and rob you of strength, those losses that sadden you and madden you, may just be the process through which you travel to better appreciate the hope given us in Jesus Christ. Often it is in the midst of disappointments that hope shines the brightest. If all the trials of life make you angry, and you lose yourself in that anger, then hope is lost, or, at the very least, buried in your own misplaced sense of self. Because, you see, it is not God's intention that you be unhappy. God wants all of his creation to find itself in harmony with God and with one another. When we allow the disappointments of life to overcome us, we allow ourselves to extinguish the expectation of something in our lives that is yet to come to full growth and maturation.
The expectation of "something yet to be" is hope realized in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
-- 1 Peter 1:6-7
We have not been blessed to have seen Jesus face-to-face, only through the eyes of hope and faith. We have the hope that we will see him face-to-face when that expectation of something yet to be comes into our eternal existence. But even now, without physically seeing him, we love him. There is a bottom line for the person who lives a Christian life. What does it mean to be a Christian? It means to love Jesus and to love God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength. It is to love him in spite of the fact that we have not seen him.
Down deep within the recesses of our souls a sense of joy is stored that cannot be removed and cannot be contained. It is a joy that is beyond natural; it is a joy that is beyond emotional; it is a joy that has been planted in our relationship with God, and nothing can destroy that which God has placed within us.
Those of us who call ourselves Christians should be the most joyous people on earth. Every part of our lives should radiate our joy at being part of the community of faith. Our hope should show through everything we do and say. Everything about us should speak to others about whose we are and why we are. It should tell others that we know that God loves us with an everlasting love, and that love can put a smile on anyone's face!
When we live our lives reflecting the expectation that good things will happen, we begin to live the life with which we have been gifted. It is a life where your actions and your words match. It is a life that says to anyone who will listen that we are filled with an "expectation of something yet to be!"
Questions For Your Consideration
1. What is the anticipation that having hope implies?
2. How do you find courage in hope? What are we to do with the courage we realize through hope?
3. In what ways are you and the apostle Peter alike? Find and discuss a biblical example that substantiates your thoughts.
4. What is paradoxical about hope?
5. How has life seduced you into thinking that you really were "better prepared for life" than you really are?
6. Look up John 14 and find the verses that give you an understanding of eternal hope as found in Jesus.
7. How do you manifest hope in your life of faith? How does that hope become visible?
8. How is it possible to love Jesus without ever having sat with him and talked with him one-on-one?
9. In your own life, how do others experience the hope you have in your life?
10. How can you help someone else to feel that same sense of hope in their life?
