Hope

We come to Hope. The last of the virtues in this mini-series (there are more virtues, but we have to stop somewhere).

For eleven years I have been daily praying a verse of the Scriptures. On the day Jacob, our first grandchild was born it became my prayer for him, and since then, for all my grandchildren.

What is this Hope for which I pray?

Again, we see that the triune God is a God of Hope. The word “hope” for us is not wishful thinking but a confident expectation of fulfillment. He is the One who will cause us to abound in Hope. He is the cause and the goal!

The Hope that we have is in His great grace that makes our redemption certain and our eternal future secure. Without that hope we are consumed with anxiety, disabled by fear, and must become disillusioned and hopeless and/or graspingly self-focussed. Hope releases us from hopelessness; it enables us to live with courage, conviction and confidence.

We must encourage our young people to be courageous, not careless risk taking but faithful steps into difficult situations. We will encourage them to operate from conviction that there is meaning and purpose for life, that the vehicle for that will be knowing the love of God and the call to love and serve one another. We must encourage our students to develop a confidence that is built upon the hope that is in Christ not the arrogance that arises from trust in innate abilities.

What a wonderful vocation into which we have been called. We must know the importance of virtues which are expressions of the character of God and encourage attitudes which both inform and reinforce faith in the triune God.

Blessings,

[1] Romans 15:13

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