Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 25: HOPE”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
We had hoped…
How many times in life have you caught yourself using this phrase…
“I had hoped…”
“I had hoped I would have been chosen for the job.”
“I had hoped to get a better grade on my test.”
“I had hoped that my investments would have gone up.”
“I had hoped that that relationship would have worked out.”
“I had hoped my car would have lasted longer.”
The list goes on.
Hope is a desire for a better future.
We have hopes in our life, but often times whatever we put our hope in fails us.
Whether it’s wealth, people, governments…they will all let us down.
Ironically the evening of the day of Christ’s resurrection a couple of his followers “had hoped…”
Luke 24:17-24 They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.
As they didn’t recognize Jesus, their hearts were discouraged. They had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel, but his body was in the grave, but the reports of Jesus’ body not there were beginning to circulate.
A dead Jesus is like anything or anyone else. A dead Jesus lets us down. Because the work of a dead Jesus is incomplete.
The Apostle Paul said it this way:
1 Corinthians 15:14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
But …
1 Corinthians 15:20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Jesus’ resurrection turns “I had hoped” into “I have hope”!
Things on earth in which we put our hope will always leave us disappointed and empty. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead affirms the reality that Jesus truly did pay for my sin and rise again to prove the truth that I too will rise again.
John 11:25 Jesus said to [Martha], “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
As the Spirit of God leads us to trust in Jesus, we can and do have hope for a better future…the best ever with Jesus in heaven.
Apply: What things in life “had” you hoped in that let you down?
Prayer: Lord God, thank you for sending Jesus to live, die and rise again for me. Because of him, I have hope! AMEN.