Hope is a loaded term these days. From politics to generic inspirational use, hope can now mean many things to many people. Defining hope with such diversity is not bad; after all, the opposite is dread. Since then some family and friends face sorrow during the Holidays; hope is dread’s alternative. Furthermore, since our culture uses hope so often, we Christians can speak about the greatest hope of all much easier: that hope being, Jesus Christ.
Luke 2:11 reminds us, “Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord.” [1]
Two-thousand years ago, the world was in a period with little hope. God’s chosen people, Israel, had not heard from the Lord for over 400 years. This timeframe was known as the “Silent Years.” It was a dark period…until Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior was humbly born in a manger at the town of Bethlehem.
As Jesus aged and matured, His ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, the nature of Christ’s hope made more sense. In Romans 15:13, the Apostle Paul wrote, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
From Romans 15:13 and many like it, today, we know that when we trust in the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ, we receive hope, joy, and peace. A hope, joy, and peace that comes from God the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Together, they are three-in-one, and our belief in Christ sustains our hope yesterday, today, and forevermore.
We need no longer live today in silence or darkness. Instead, we should live with hope because the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was born 2000 plus years ago, not just in the flesh, but forevermore!
[1]All verses used in this post are from the New International Version 2011.
