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.