A second way that hope empowers love is what we might call the inevitability of imitation. With hope there is that window of opportunity or new light for reassurance that the possibilities are endless and as long as you believe, anything can happen! It is usually described with light metaphors — a ray, a beam, a glimmer of hope; the break in the clouds; the light at the end of the dark tunnel. But two further questions arise: How does a credible testimony to Jesus' resurrection produce hope in our heart? Our subconscious may tell us: "Well, if things are going to be so bad tomorrow, you may as well get the pleasure you can today. And the result of this is that we are so fretful about ourselves that we have no incentive or strength to care about others. Its focus, its degree, and its intensity change … You know I mean it, Lord Jesus, and I ask you to make your presence known right now. I am convinced that this hope, more than any other, can change lives and provide a sense of meaning in this world. And what he said was that he died for me (John 15:13) and that he ransomed me for God (Mark 10:45). Connecting the historical resurrection of Jesus and my life 2,000 years later is the Word of God, namely, the gospel. "Everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure" (1 John 3:3). We can strengthen our hope by studying the Holy Bible and all of its stories of the power of hope. The answer to this is the second way his resurrection gives me hope. Hope is more powerful than they realize. The power with which Peter aims to equip these beleaguered saints is the power of hope. If that is true, then a radical change in our desires and longings will mean a radical change in our personhood. Accompanying this ignorance was a complex of desires. If that is what we are called to do, then the power has to come from some source greater than the human soul. And as you all know, the Bible—especially Peter's first letter—does not ease our burden by saying: "When things are tough, don't fret about others; take care of yourself." That's how a 2,000-year-old resurrection reaches my heart and begets hope: it certifies to me that because Jesus bore my sins on the cross, God is for me and not against me; and it declares that this Jesus who loved me and gave himself for me is alive and present and caring at every moment of my life. Most people in the world have no experience of lasting joy in their lives. The human means of growing in abundant hope is to believe and keep believing in God. Hope is a gift you don’t have to surrender, a power you don’t have to throw away. Among its opposites are dejection, hopelessness, and despair. He begins the main body of his letter: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his great mercy has begotten us anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1:3). Stay hopeful, my friends! Romans 8:24-25 says, 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. If Jesus was raised from the dead, exalted to the right hand of the father, and is coming as king to judge the quick and the dead, then I have good reason to believe that what he said about his death is true. Here are just a few. The opposite of a "living hope" would be a "dead hope," and that calls to mind a similar phrase in James 2, namely, "dead faith." For this reason, hope is a vital piece of positive psychology and can be considered a catalyst for change in our lives. How do I know it is a hopeful presence? For "He that would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile; let him turn away from evil and do right; let him seek peace and pursue it." Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:5–7). Since love is the greatest of the three and hope is just before love, that means hope is the second greatest, even above faith. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Hope brings about optimism and motivation to reach goals and make/maintain positive change in our lives. The divine means of this abundant hope is the power of the Holy Spirit. God provides hope. The power of hope is evident in the examples given above. Not knowing the glory of God and the hope he offers through Christ, you set your hope on things of the world and your conduct kept in step. 2) How does it arise in our heart? (4:8). We must argue with our soul and say, "Soul, Jesus Christ died for my sins, it has been certified to me by his resurrection. But if Christ has been raised, then all my sins are forgiven if I cast myself on him. And I want to conclude with three illustrations of how that works. "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and the gospel's, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time . But what is hope? Hope “lights a candle” instead of “cursing the darkness.” Hope regards problems, small or large, as opportunities. 2) The second question I want to answer is: How does this hope arise in our hearts? Something new comes into being, and that is what Jesus and John and Paul and Peter call the new birth or regeneration. (2:21–23), Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary, bless; for to this you have been called, that you may obtain a blessing. Just being optimistic about your future is a good start, but hope also requires that you have a process to gain what you desire. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. let him turn away from evil and do good.". Words by themselves don't produce hope. The New Testament idea of hope is very different from our normal thinking about hope. Hope built on God and His promises need never fail. What does that mean? The resurrection of Jesus certifies to me the efficacy of his death for my sins. He is author of. Instead of fading completely in the face of adversity, hope often endures, even during the most difficult times, which leads us down a road that allows a more optimistic outlook even in the most challenging of times. And if all my sins are forgiven, then God is not against me but for me. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power … Peter passes on his teaching like this: "Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called that you may obtain a blessing. A starting point used for comparisons. What is that tap root from which the flower of your individuality grows? When we are hopeful and have hope that things and people (including ourselves) have the ability to grow, change, and maintain that change, we are then intrinsically motivated to set goals and act on them in order to achieve those goals and reinforce that hope and optimism. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." As time allows we will provide other such condensed studies on key terms, especially of the New Testament. Notice 1 Peter 1:13–15: The main thing I want us to see from this text is that conduct conforms to passions or desires. Remember, Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. It is your desires. Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles, so that in case they speak against you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. I want to try to answer three questions about this "living hope": 1) What is it? Hope produces joy and peace in believers through the power of the Spirit (Romans 12:12; 15:13). And now why is the begetting of this hope called a new birth? What is the essence of your unique personhood? And how these two means work together is not hard to understand. The primal thing is your yearning and longing. The kind of conduct that hoping in God empowers is holy love. Hope is the elevating feeling we experience when we see—in the mind’s eye—a path to a better future. And: Why is this called a new birth? First of all, hope empowers holy love by pushing out greed and self-pity. Why are you downcast, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? CO 80209, Compassionate Communication in Relationships – Ways to put it into Practice, Trauma Informed Care – Mental Health First Aid, Mental Health First Aid for Depression and Anxiety, Hope is strongly correlated with academic and athletic, Hope holds the potential to enhance overall well-being over time, People with high hope are more likely to view stressful situations as challenging as opposed to threatening which reduces the intensity of stress, Hope is a type of protective factor against developing chronic anxiety, Hope is a motivational factor that helps to initiate and sustain action toward long-term goals and change, Hope is strongly related to overall life satisfaction, Hope motivates individuals to maintain their positive involvement in life regardless of any limitations imposed upon them. And so do we adults, though we are less blatant about it. Hope is powerful. They say, “I hope so.” However, that is not the meaning of the words usually translated “hope” in the Bible. Living hope is hope that has power and produces changes in life. We have to have some evidence that Jesus really did rise from the dead. As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish a desire with anticipation." In other words, hope is like a snap-shot of a person’s current goal-directed thinking, highlighting the motivated pursuit of goals and the expectation that those goals can be achieved. The only way to have the power to follow Christ in the costly way of love is to be filled with hope, with strong confidence, that if we lose our life doing his will, we will find it again and be richly rewarded. The apostle Peter took up his pen 30 years or so after the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, and set himself to write something encouraging to the beleaguered Christians of Asia Minor. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to Charles Snyder, hope is “a positive cognitive state based on a sense of successful goal-directed determination and planning to meet these goals”. Have a new set of desires and the holy conduct that follows from them, like fruit on a tree. So the command, "Hope fully," means be intensely desirous and fully confident that Jesus Christ is coming again with grace for his people. It happens in basically two ways. This is the answer that some may give when asked if they think that they will go to heaven when they die. A person who hopes intensely in Jesus Christ, who longs to see him and be with him, will inevitably start to think and feel and act like Jesus. Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large. Your individuality is determined by what you hanker for. That is not the way Peter, or the rest of the New Testament, thinks about hope. Hope can be learned with practice. Holding on to hope can change your mindset and foster an increased ability to achieve goals and attain a change in our lives. It helps you stay calm and peaceful when something less than desirable emerges. STEPHEN KING (more Stephen King quotes) Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success; for who so hopes strongly has within him the gift of miracles. Hope in God!" “Hope is not a feeling of certainty that everything ends well. We often do not know what God is doing now. Hope. We are most basically what we crave. But we don’t need to know what God is doing now to keep following him in faith. Joy in God is the ground of godly sorrow over sin. The following study is designed to provide a condensed biblical explanation of hope as it is found in the Word of God. . Romans 15:13, NASB: "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Hope allows us a resource for motivation to pursue our goals and change and gives us the optimism and resilience to pick ourselves up when things don’t go as planned. Have you ever asked the question: What makes you you? Hope sets big goals and is not frustrated by repeated difficulties or setbacks. Living hope is hope that has power and produces changes in life. "By his great mercy we have been born anew unto a living hope." A mild form of this would be overeating; a more serious form would be stealing. Ideas and principles will be brought in afterwards to justify our appetites and passions. Formerly we were ignorant, Peter says in verse 14, ignorant of the death and resurrection of Jesus and all the promises they contain. In accordance with this, there are obviously great benefits to having hope. Finally, one other way that hope empowers holy love is by giving the assurance of God's blessing and care which we need in order to follow through on some of his specific hard commands. "And if God is for me, then who can be against me?". And they say: I don't know; I hope so. 1 a : desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment came in hopes of seeing you also : expectation of fulfillment or success no hope of a cure when they were young and full of hope. The reason Peter says we are "born anew to a living hope" is because when we cease to pin our hopes (our desires and longings) on things that are in the world, and instead pin our hopes and desires on God, then a new person has been born. Hope is a gift of the Spirit. 3) And now we will try to see why such a person has the power to love. They might direct their hopes outward in prayer. So we can define hope, in the New Testament sense, as full assurance, or strong confidence that God is going to do good to us in the future. Practice of calling public attention to one’s product through a variety of ways including paid announcements. True hope has no room for delusion. On the horizon loomed the possibility of a much more violent form of persecution (4:12–18). It is also fitting today as we consider "The Power of Hope" that we look at the writings of the Apostle Peter, since he is known as "The Apostle of Hope." How, when your life is in jeopardy, or your job, or your marriage, or your health, or your respect in the community—how can you rise up with joy and bless those who abuse you and devote yourself to labors of love? The power of hope is life-changing, and we all can use more of it in our lives. The gospel is the message, preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, "that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, and that he rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). Hope is the power to believe that anything is possible — a fresh start, a second chance, or to wish upon a miracle. . One way to see the power of hope is to examine life without it. Hopelessness is a curse; it’s the curse of trusting … The way Peter puts it in 3:18 is this: "Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God." There is no slackening in the summons to live like Jesus, even when life is really tough. God is not against me but for me. The resurrection of Jesus does not produce hope without our hearing about it. Romans 15:13, NLT: "I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:17, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." If they, or we, are going to love like Jesus loved, even in times of great stress and worry, then they must be filled with "living hope." Hope opens doors and has the power to sustain us through the most difficult of times and circumstances. Christian hope arises in the heart through hearing a credible testimony to the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Strong hope to see Jesus is a strong power for holy love. But the other way around is true too. Hope has been compared to a “rainbow of the mind” due to its ability to make us think about all of the possibilities and lift our spirits. b : someone or something on which hopes are centered our only hope for victory. A condition that occurs when our bodies do not get enough water. Hope draws its power from a deep trust in God and the basic goodness of human nature. And though hope can be an act of defiance, defiance isn’t enough reason to hope. So Christian hope is a strong confidence in God which has power to produce changes in how we live. Hope acknowledges the significant obstacles and deep pitfalls along that path. Hope is defined as a belief that things will get better, that good will come. We’re on a mission to change that. that we come across as we read our Bibles, but often these are just vague concepts for many people. Certain attitudes support it. When Peter says in 1:13, "Hope fully in the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ," he does not mean we should desire it and be uncertain of it. Definition and meaning:HOPE hop: 1. with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life" (Mark 10:29–30). When we are anxious about tomorrow and something has happened to make us feel terrible about what's coming, we generally respond in one or both of two ways, which are just the opposite of love. There are many key terms and concepts in Scripture like faith, hope, love, joy, grace, peace, pleasing the Lord, etc. Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier https://positivepsychology.com/hope-therapy/, The Verbally Abusive Relationship by Dr. Patricia Evans, “Helping People of all ages live happier, healthier and more productive lives”, 5130 W 80th Ave (Bldg A-102), Westminster He who would love life and see good days . It was a very anti-Christian society. I love this definition of the power of hope! Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. “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.” Explanation and Commentary of Romans 15:13 Joy, peace, and hope are three marks of a Christian, and this verse shows the way in which they are intermingled. This word holds different meanings in different spaces for different people. And so hope is the power for holy love. Kids tend to dress and walk and talk like their heroes. Performing in the best possible manner with the least waste of time and effort. Light an Advent candle to prepare your heart by renewing your hope, growing your love, rejoicing in Christ, and finding rest and peace. The other way we respond to anxiety is by self-pity or depression. The Meaning of Hope. This is what "living' means in Hebrews 4:12, where it says, "The word of God is living and effective ." According to Charles Snyder, hope is “a positive cognitive state based on a sense of successful goal-directed determination and planning to meet these goals”. You always tend to imitate the people you admire most and desire most strongly to be around. CO 80030, 50 S Steele St. (Suite 950), Denver That is, faith is barren, fruitless, unproductive (2:20). Peter says, "You have been born anew not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God; for all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. Perhaps not. That is, our hope arises from being born anew, and this new birth comes in some sense through Jesus' resurrection. That's why Paul, when he defined the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:4, went on to say that after his resurrection Jesus "appeared to Cephas, then the twelve. 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