Living Hopefully

Hope is incredibly powerful and God gives us great reason to put our hope in Him. Bill concludes our Living series by talking about that hope encouraging us to Live Hopefully.

Living Hopefully

Living | Week 4

April 24, 2016 | Bill Clark

Romans 8:22-25 (NIV)

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Hope is not the same thing as optimism.

Hope is forged in the furnace of Scripture and the promises of God’s Word.

“Our souls were made for hope like our hearts were made to love and our brains were made to think.”

- Lewis Smedes

God gave us the power to imagine the future, but He gave us no power to control it.

Jesus doesn’t answer all the hard questions, but instead He took all the pain and all the loss and He put it on Himself.

Ephesians 2:12-13 (NIV)

Remember that at that time you were separated from Christ…and foreigners to the Covenants of the promise, WITHOUT HOPE and WITHOUT GOD in the world. But NOW in Christ Jesus you who were far away have been brought NEAR through the blood of Christ.

We become hopeful people by choosing faith over fear.

We remember seasons of life when God helped us and believe He can do it again.

We look for signs of hope around us and join in.

We forgive ourselves for past mistakes and accept the promise of grace.

We remember that we have a future that has been secured by the Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus—and when we remember He is coming again.