It’s the first month of a new year, and no matter what sort of year last year was, isn’t there that slight sense of expectancy that maybe this year will be the year that we want it to be? It’s called hope, and hope is very important for our wellbeing. There is the hope of a better job, a better house, a better me, a better marriage, a better relationship, a better future . The God who made us knows our need of hope, and our need to hope. One of my favourite passages comes from Romans 15: v 13 which says  “ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit “. He says  “ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jer  29:11.) 

 Even if you feel that there is no hope for you at all, no future, no job, no one to love you, or because your life has got out of control, or maybe you feel that God couldn’t possibly love you or do anything for you, even then there is hope. 2 Cor inthians 5;17 tells us “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone the new has come. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ .. God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” God is on your side. He is the Great Provider and the great Cleanser.

 

 

God goes even further, Galatians 3;26 makes this wonderful statement “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” God truly is the God of Hope. The most often read portion of Scripture at marriage ceremonies comes from 1 Corinthians 13 and is that great passage about love, and it ends with these words “These three remain: faith, hope and love” . Do you begin to see how important hope is. God knows and understands how much we need it. He knows too how much we need to have hope in Him, so He writes “ Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” (Hebrews 6)

 

 

  “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace “   May each one of you have the hope that God gives. God bless you.