Personally, I think the concept of Hope is a little underrated in the Christian walk. If you know her verses, you might be familiar with 1 Corinthians 13:13. “Three things will last forever–faith, hope, and love–and the greatest of these is love.” Faith is a given, for what are Christians without faith? Faith is strong belief. Obviously, love is the strongest of these, but anyone familiar with a Christian walk of life will recognize its importance. After all, the two greatest commandments consist of loving God and others as yourself. But you cannot love that which you have no hope in, nor can you have faith without strong hope.
What is Hope? Hope is “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Hope may be most clearly demonstrated in a young child in the days before Christmas. That child knows that on Christmas day, they’re getting presents. They hope that they get what they want, that what they get is awesome, as any child should.
What’s the difference between Hope and Expectation? In my opinion, it’s the desire and emotion. Someone can expect a bad grade on a test they didn’t quite understand. Someone else can hope that they get a good grade due to the work they put in. You do not desire what you expect, such as a ticket when you speed by a parked police vehicle. However, you can hope that nothing happens and you get away unscathed.
A quote from C.S. Lewis, “Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”
As you read this, tell me, are you excited about Heaven? Why, why not? Yes, we know that there is perfection in Heaven, but have you ever experienced perfection? Do you know what it’s like to be truly with God, to have every one of your senses filled with his glory? We know Heaven by its lofty descriptions, not by its practicality. Can you properly hope in something you have no truly experienced? And without Hope in Heaven, why have Faith in Christianity? Why bother with selfless Love?
I’m not trying to downplay Heaven, only that I’m trying to show almost how inconceivable it is, and the disconnect that draws from that. On Earth, everyone experienced Heaven differently. But there are things on Earth that do point to Heaven that should cause hope to swell in our hearts and minds.
God created pleasure. Pleasure is not something that the Devil has created to draw us away. Every pleasure in this life is natural, only the mediums that allow certain pleasures to be realized have been manipulated and are corrupting. Sex itself is a pleasure given by God, while sexual immorality, while offering pleasure, is sinful and ignores God’s Plan for His creation. Pleasure is God-given and good.
With this in mind, know that this world is imperfect, while Heaven is perfect. Every pleasure we have on Earth is incomplete and flawed, while in Heaven it is found perfect and undeniably pleasing. The sweetness of a strawberry is only a foretaste of what you’ll sample in Heaven. The indescribable joy of a beautiful landscape, although awe-inspiring, will pale to the everyday sights we’ll experience with our Father in Heaven. Songs that move through you now will only compare to the first note of a heavenly symphony.
Acts 7:49. “Heaven is my throne, and the Earth is my footstool…” Know that whatever is good and pleasing on this Earth pales to what we will have in Heaven. When you eat your favorite food, listen to your favorite song, or dwell on a portrait, think on that.
There are verses describing Heaven from human eyes found in the Bible, and I’ll include them at the end.
Christians are often out of touch with the promise and reward that God has promised us. Our Christian payday is vague in delivery, and that desensitizes us, particuarly our American culture that is very much in demand of what’s right now. We do no hope, only work for what we can achieve right now. How do we change that? As aforementioned, dwell on how how wonderful our good Earthly pleasures may be, and the untapped potential we will experience in Heaven.
Another from the fantastic author, C.S. Lewis sums it up perfectly in one of my favorite quotes. “Indeed if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are halfhearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday by the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” Do not settle or be complacent in your Faith, your Love, and especially not your Hope.
In communion, do not simply dwell on your wrongs and thank God for His Mercy, but celebrate! The act of Communion was based on The Last Supper, which was in itself a celebration. Focus your thoughts on the promises that God has made for you and dwell on the hope that you have that is in Heaven. God, like a parent, does not want His children to only come to him as remorseful creatures, but excited and happy for the gifts and promises He offers us.
I’ll finish with a closing thought. God created us in His Image. It’s an important distinction to make that God is not a God of rules or legalism, nor should be considered something akin to a force of nature. God is a god of emotion. Consider this, God sent Christ down to die for us. Why? He did so in the Hope that His Creation will chose Him over themselves. All of Creation centers around this Hope and God, as we know Him, thrives on this Hope. So, we too, require Hope to live, not only physically, but spiritually and in all other aspects of our humanity as well.
Scriptures you can read that ‘physically’ describe Heaven, our reward for our Christian life. As well, this posting was inspired by the work The Slumber of Christianity by Ted Dekker. I highly recommend the read as most of my material borrows from his work, only Dekker explains it in far more detail.
o Luke 23:43
o 1 Corinthians 2:9
o Isaiah 65: 17-25
o Revelations 21:1-22:5
Psalm 147:11
“the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.”
1 Peter 1:3 NIV
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”
Proverbs 13:12
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.”
Romans 12:12
“Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”
Romans 8:24-25 ESV
”For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Job 11:18 NIV
“You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety.”
Job 17: 13-15
“If the only home I hope for is the grave, if I spread out my bed in the realm of darkness, if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother’ or ‘My sister,’ where then is my hope—who can see any hope for me?”
Colossians 1:5
“the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel”
Travis's 2 cents 