The Hope To Which We Are Called

Isn't crazy how you can read over something a thousand times and never really understand what you are reading? You think you do, understand it that is, and so you begin to skim because it says the same thing it did last time you read it and it will probably say the same thing again.

Parts of scripture often work like that for me. I don't think I know it all or have fully grasped the meaning of certain passages...it just happens subconsciously. I find it often happens with passages in the New Testemant, especially in Paul's letters like Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians. For me, those books seem to be the ones I go to and study when I don't know where else to turn in the Bible. They are short, a little "easier" to study and in a way you feel like you've got'em figured out. And so this week I was surprised to find myself frequently turning to Ephesians 1:15-23.

I mean seriously...how many times have we/I read, heard this preached on, tried to memorize, and read the little coffee table book based on this prayer...a lot I think. But instead of the "same old same old" feeling that I usually get with this passage, this week I have been treated to a banquet of spiritual truths that I have previously missed in this passage.

Paul, after he has outlined a long list of who and what we are in-Christ, falls to his knees and begins to pray for the dear recipients of his letter. He begins by praying that God would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge (not just head but experiential knowledge) of God. "Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened"...the Greek tense here indicating a past action with continuing results. So because their hearts had been enlightened there is the capacity for them to have this knowledge.

And what does Paul pray for them to know and to have this spirit of wisdom and revelation of God in?

3 specific things.

1. The hope to which He had called them to
2. The riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints
3. The immeasurable greatness of His power toward those who believe

For now I want to share what God has taught me from the first.

Hope

So what is hope anyway? And what is the hope to which God has called us?

Websters defines hope 3 ways
1: to cherish a desire with anticipation
2: to desire with expectation of obtaining
3: to expect with confidence

The more I think about this word "hope" the more I am amazed. There are very few things in life that will influence us more than hope...or lack there of. Hope does many things in our lives. It keeps us dreaming, it calls us to push ahead, it and can simply keep us living because we "hope" that there is something better coming. We hope that we'll be rescued, that things will be put to right, and that we will be satisfied. We expect to obtain something in the future that will be "better" than what we have now. Hope can be the wind in our sails that keeps us going in our journey through life. But on the flip side, the lack of hope or hope misplaced can leave us feeling dashed against lifes jagged rocks...left stranded with no "hope" of rescue.

So because hope is so central and so woven into our experience as humans, it shouldn't surprise us that God, who has given us capacity to hope, has also given us something to hope in. And Paul prays that his readers would know to what hope God had called them.

Paul, in his short letter to Titus, gives us more insight to what this hope is that God has given us. In the beginning of Titus Paul describes himself as an apostle of Jesus for the faith of those chosen by God so they could know, "the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised..." He goes on later in chapter 2 to encourage his readers to live, "looking for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ...."

What is the hope to which God has called us? This hope is the hope that one day Jesus Christ will return and will put everything to right! A hope that one day we will be raised and our bodies glorified. The hope that we will be satisfied in a way that money, success, relationships, and praise from others can never satisfy. And a hope that we will worship and enjoy Him without any hindrances for ever and ever and ever and ever.

You see we will all hope in something whether we know it or not. And this hope will dictate how our lives will be lived. God has challenged me so much in the last week to reevaluate where my hope rests. And unfortunatly I'm beginning to find that much of my hope rests in things that will never satisfy or fulfill or maybe even come to pass. But praise God that even though we sometimes place our hope in the wrong things He remains rich in lovingkindness toward us.

God has given all of us something to hope in that will come to pass...and He has given us the grace in which to hope in it.