Our Hope
s Jesus Christ, which is our Hope.” — 1 Tim. i.
HERE are two very different ways of using the word “hope.” One is when we say “I hege so,” with such a tone as to show that we don’t very much expect so! Now if you look out all the texts about it, you will find that God never uses it that way. In His Word hope always means bright, happy, confident expectation. So that must be the sort of hope He means us ton have, He says, “Happy is he... whose hope is in the Lord his God”’ (Ps. cxlvi. ye Sometimes if we ask persons whether they are “safe in the arms of Jesus,” they look very distressed, and say, “I hope so,” with a tone that says they are very doubtful about it. That is not a bit like the bright hope St. Paul speaks of, when he says we are ta “hold fast the confidence and ¢he rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end” (Heb. iii. ).
But we can only have a bright hope by having the right hope. There is only one true hope, and that is Jesus Christ Himself. If we are “without Christ,” we really have “no hope” (Eph. ii. ). But we need not pass another day, nor even another hour, without Him, in the dismal uncertainty of danger; you need not wait for anything at all, but at once flee for refuge to the Hope set before you, that is, to Jesus Himself (Heb. vi. ). And that Hope will be to you, “as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.” Without it you are like a littic ship driven about by the waves, and drifting every minute nearer to the rocks where she must be dashed to pieces. But with it you are like the little ship that is anchored safe on what the sailors call ‘good holding ground,” and nothing can by any means hurt you (Luke x. ), or take away your blessed hope (Tit. ii. i or: Christ Himself will dwell in your heart by faith (Eph. iii ); and He will be “in you, the Hope of glory” (Col. i. ); and nothing shall separate you from His love (Rom. vill.:
Happy, so happy! Thy Saviour shall be
Ever more precious and present to thee,
Onward and upward along the right way Lovingly leading thee day after day!