Monday, January 6, 2020

686 - Hope that Assures

Spirituality Column #686
January 7, 2020
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Hope that Assures
By Bob Walters

“We have this hope [Jesus] as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” – Hebrews 6:19

Coulda, shoulda, woulda, maybe, might, perhaps, someday, if only … sigh …

Alas … whither hope?  And oh, by the way … prove it.

Is hope a wish or a fact?  Is it faith to come, or faith in action?  And how in the world do we prove it?  Is hope something we already have or something we “hope” to attain?  Or is hope, in fact, the living presence of Jesus?  I’d say, let’s go with that.

I can’t think of a less appealing and less useful way to describe one’s trust in God – “the hope we have,” etc. (1 Peter 3:15) –  than to think the fruits of our relationship with the eternal God through Christ are something indeterminate and far off in the future: a big, subjunctive “maybe” of expectation someday later rather than the active, inspiring, and assuring truth of God’s presence, grace, and relationship today.  In Christ.

Jesus can’t be much of an anchor if His truth is still bouncing along the ocean bottom, dragged uncertainly by its tether to the boat above being tossed by the winds, currents, and vagaries of life’s – and the fallen world’s – temptations, untruths, dangers, and deceptions.   A “set” anchor is a sure and present truth to a voyager in a storm:

We are the voyagers, the world is the storm, and Jesus is the set anchor we trust.

Hope is neither subjective nor subjunctive nor far off; it is the truth we know now.  It is the Jesus truth of mankind.  It is Christ resurrected and the Holy Spirit in our hearts, today.  Hope that hasn’t happened yet is the longing of unmet truth; the patient waiting we see throughout the Old Testament.  The arrival of Jesus brings human life’s greatest gift: humanity’s restoration of relationship to God and participation in His glory.

For Abraham, hope meant patiently waiting.

For us, hope – the baptism by the Holy Spirit – arrived in the person of Jesus.  Our joy is not in the faith and patience of something still to come; we have it right now in our love for Christ and love for each other.  It occurs to me that to love God and to love others are the two great commandments because love is the gearbox of putting our hope in motion in our lives.  We miss out horribly if we think the Kingdom is relegated to some unknown time years hence and defined by that which we cannot know.

“Hope” infused with “maybe” inspires no one; unanchored expectations are the bane of good will.  “I hope so!” is unpersuasive, like when one “hopes” all that stuff in the Bible about salvation and heaven and forgiveness is true.  Instead of being anchored assuredly – now – to the greatest truth of existence, Jesus, one’s modern tires are spinning in the muck of the current, ill-defined culture of self-interest, satisfaction of personal appetites, and transmission of Satan’s soul-killing sacrilege.

Our redemption in Christ is now … and forever.  Be thankful.  Use the hope of Jesus – the anchor of our soul – to live in His kingdom, in His hope, in the here and now.  “Thy Kingdom come; thy will be done …”  is Jesus teaching us to pray for, attain, and internalize the assurance of who He really is.  He, Jesus, is our rest and our peace.

Our joy in knowing through Jesus that God is real, God is truth, God is eternal, and God wants us with Him, is the Kingdom that has come in Christ’s holy relationship.

Hope is assured today; firm and secure.  No waiting required.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) hopes you’ll believe him that he just noticed, halfway through writing this, that his coffee cup has an anchor and Hebrews 6:19 on the side.

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