Monday, May 12, 2008

Our Great Hope; God's Great Love

Romans 5:5 --- And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
This scripture speaks about Hope. It speaks about Love. Let’s think about what those mean. What is Hope? What is Love?
First of all, Hope.
Psalm 25 says that “No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame.” Psalm 33:18 says “But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.”
But Proverbs 11:7 says “When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes.” Prov 23:18 “There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.”
Romans 8:24 says “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?” I Tim 1:1 Paul talks “of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.” I Tim 4:10 “we have put our hope in the living God.” Heb 6:19 “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”
Heb 11:1 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”
You see? Hope is not something uncertain. It is definite. Do you remember Christmas when you were a little child? You hoped for Christmas morning, didn’t you? Was there any doubt that Christmas would come? No. That was certain—yet you hoped. You looked forward to it. You knew it was coming even though you didn’t know everything that would be there.
That’s a picture of our hope. Our hope is in Jesus Christ and His coming back to earth again. His coming is even more certain than any Christmas morning that we have already experienced. Why? Because He is God and has said that He was coming back. God doesn’t lie. It will happen!
That is our hope. Our hope is in Christ Jesus. Now that leads us to the second part of this verse: “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Love!
Do you see? Hope brings Love. Love brings Hope. They are linked together. Think back to Christmas morning as a child. You were hoping for it. Right? Why? Because you loved it. It had the promise of something nice.
The same is true a thousand times over with our hope in Jesus Christ. This hope does not disappoint. We’ve all been disappointed by something here in this world. But not Jesus. This hope does not disappoint. And we get some of the promised blessings right now. He puts His love in our hearts. We have this hope; He answers it by putting His love in our hearts.
Now let’s think about that love.
Jesus is called our friend. A friend. I have friends. How do you know that some one is a friend? You want to spend time with each other. You like talking with each other. You enjoy doing things with your friend.
But Jesus is better than any earthly friend we can think of. We should be longing to spend time with Him. Do we talk with Him? Pray to Him? Read the Bible? It is the Bible that tells us of this dear Friend.
Our God is also called our Heavenly Father.
Think of earthly fathers. Children love it when daddy comes home. Some of my children still enjoy sitting on my lap. Young children can’t sleep unless they’ve been kissed and tucked in bed by daddy. Children’s faces brighten when their daddy smiles at them across the room.
Oh, how much more with our Heavenly Father! Do we love being in His presence? Do we long for His loving embrace and smile of approval? Are we looking forward to His words, “Well done”?
Finally, Jesus calls the church His bride. Now that’s love, isn’t it! And what are brides doing in the days and weeks before the wedding? Are they bore? No. Are they dreading it? Not if it is love! No, they are longing for the wedding day. They are hoping! And they know that hope will come to pass soon. They look for ways of talking with their groom. They read and re-read notes that their beloved groom wrote. A bride is usually thinking about her groom all the day long. When she is out she will see something and say “Oh, my groom likes that!”
How much more we should be thinking of our heavenly groom!?
Shouldn’t we be looking forward to talking with Him? We can—in prayer.
Shouldn’t we be looking for ways of reading His love notes to us? We can—that’s what the Bible is.
Shouldn’t we be finding out more and more about Him all the time? We can—the Bible shows us Jesus.
In short, if we have this hope, He has given us love. And if we have this love we will long to see Him more and more. And because we have this hope, we will long to be more like He is because we love Him. “Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.”

But maybe you’re thinking: “this isn’t true of me.”

If that’s so, then cry out to God and ask Him to change your heart so that you love Him. God is a God of compassion, but you must cry out for mercy. Jesus spoke to the leaders when He was here on earth. He knew their hearts and He said “I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.” What a dreadful condition. If God’s love is not in your hearts, then the only thing that He will say to you on the Day of Judgment is “depart from Me you worker of iniquity!” That would be no hope—and no love.
But you can make sure of it right now. You can cry out to God that He would set His hope in your heart and pour out His love in you. Then you will long to be with Him and He will give you peace—the peace that passes all understanding. He will give you the strength to face whatever comes your way. Strength even to face death itself—because He is there with you. Isaiah writes:
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.