The Anchor of True Hope

Hope: to cherish a desire with anticipation. Examples from Merriam-Webster:

1. I hope you’re feeling better soon.
2. That’s what she hoped would happen.
3. Let’s hope that the strike ends soon.
4. I hope I haven’t bored you.
5. Everyone in your family is well, I hope.

Hope is used today in many contexts, mostly as anticipating a favored outcome or wishful thinking. No wonder many fall under the umbrella of confusion when they hear, “Hope in Christ.”

My sister, Brenna, and I progress with Multiple Sclerosis. It’s slow, but it is suffering.

My neighbor, a nurse, helps a friend by watching sweet baby Michael. She rocks him to sleep, places him for a nap. He never awakes. She discovers that he is blue in face and he leaves this earth for Heaven in her very home. SIDS. She bravely calls his mother, her dear friend.

A woman phones for prayer. We intercede again for her adult son whom she sees not. Mere photos floating around in cyber-space tell the story of the wayward path he chooses. Might He choose Jesus after many years of sewing faithful seeds.

Upon her diagnosis with breast cancer, our precious sister in Christ, a quadriplegic, Joni Eareckson Tada, quoted Psalm 62:5-6, “Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken.”

The Lord alone grants hope like Joni’s, like the hope of Job. “Though He slay me, I will trust in Him” Job 13:15. This Hope is other than the misguided hope of this world…a hope totally dependent upon circumstances and outcomes. Hope in Christ rests in the sure foundation of the truths of scripture. It is eternal. It is a gift offered by an omnipotent God. This true hope awaits on an Almighty God.

God is able to convert our false hopes into true hope in Him. It is when we receive His hope that we also receive His peace and joy…even in the midst of sorrow.

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him? Romans 8:32

John Piper shares, “That’s how a 2000-year-old resurrection reaches my heart and begets hope: it certifies to me that because Jesus bore my sins on the cross, God is for me and not against me, and it declares that this Jesus who loved me and gave himself for me is alive and present and caring at every moment of my life. Thank you Jesus!”

Might you trust that He is for you and allow Him to be the anchor that holds you against the storm in your valley of trial. Certainly, pray for that favored outcome. He is a God of the impossible! But allow your hope to rest in His sovereignty as you await His answer upon His time table.

Moment by Moment in Him,

Dear Friends, for more on the Practice of Hope, visit:

Books to encourage you with Hope in Christ:

When God Weeps: Why Our Sufferings Matter to the Almighty, Joni E. Tada, Steve Estes

Let Me Be a Woman, Elisabeth Elliot

When the Darkness Will Not Lift: Doing What We Can While We Wait for God--and Joy, John Piper