Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
1 Peter 1:3 HCSB
Easton’s Bible Dictionary defines hope as
“one of the three main elements of Christian character (1 Corinthians 13:13). It is joined to faith and love, and is opposed to seeing or possessing. Christ is the actual object of the believer’s hope.”
Hope is when we eagerly look forward to something.
Rebecca VanNoord states “We don’t often realize where we put our hope. We can seek sustenance, energy, or relief in the most transient, innocuous things—from our morning coffee to a vacation we’ve been anticipating for months. These things are not bad in themselves, but if they constantly serve as minor fixes in our daily lives, they can shift our focus. We can end up trading God’s help for caffeine and a few days in the sun.” (Go here to read the rest of this article.)
Ouch! (Especially the coffee/caffeine part.) “Shift our focus.” I don’t know about you, but my focus is easily shifted. How is it then that we are to place our hope in an infant born in a stable and keep our focus on something we have never seen or experienced? Especially in the world today where Christmas has been commercialized and Christ is being taken out of Christmas.
Look at it this way:
- Without Christ…there is no Christmas.
- Without that miraculous birth…there is no crucifixion or resurrection.
- Without Christ’s resurrection…there would be no hope.
Christ alone is our eternal hope, our living hope.
Lamentations 3:24 (AMP) says “The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him.” It is Christ living in us that gives us hope. 1 Timothy 4:10 (HCSB) states,
In fact, we labor and strive for this,
because we have put our hope in the living God,
who is the Savior of everyone,
especially of those who believe.
Our hope is in the living God—the Savior who busted through the gates of hell and conquered death in our place. That’s where I need to keep my focus. It is in that hope I find my joy. Who knew that one small baby born in a stable would have such a profound affect on the whole world? God did. He knew that Holy Infant would be our living hope.
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Father, thank You for the living hope we have in the birth of Your One and Only Son. Let us be mindful that we have that living hope inside of us, to be shared with those whose lives we touch. Thank You for that precious birth that changed our future and gives us such hope. In Your Holy name we pray, Amen—it is so!
Thank you, Cynda, for challenging me check where my “hope focus” is. I want to focus on, rely on, Jesus Christ, The One Who makes an eternal difference in my life.
I’m adding my “it is so” to your prayer!
Thanks Clella. It is so easy for our focus to shift if we aren’t paying close attention.
Thank you, Cynda, for reminding us of the TRUTH of our HOPE and to keep my focus in the right place!
Thanks LL. There are so many things clamor inn for our attention, especially this time of year
thanks, cynda…so important to remember that it is a LIVING hope we have through our Lord’s death AND resurrection. echoing your prayer <3
Thanks Coleen. Your comment made me think about the fact that it is only through death that we have living hope – Christ’s death on the cross & our death to self <3
yes…both! <3