“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” I Corinthians 13:13 NIV

“For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” Romans 8:24-25 NIV

As I prepared for this post, a line from an old hymn got stuck in my head. “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness”. I had to look up the lyrics and listen to it on YouTube to finally stop singing just that line. And believe me when I say I can’t really sing. The dogs were quite happy for the quiet. I also found out that it was written in 1864 and is also known by the title “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand”. Are you singing it in your head yet?

The word hope is used over 160 times in the NIV Bible. We all use “hope” many times in our everyday conversations. I hope you pass your math test. I hope you’re feeling better soon. I hope we will see you this week. I hope… Fill in your own. We use hope a lot. But we use it almost interchangeably with “wish”, a desire for something that might happen.

But our hope, that comes from our Father God through Jesus, is much more than just a wish. Hope is our strong and confident expectation of our future home in heaven because of our salvation through Jesus. The song line is our truth. Our God doesn’t see our sins and our shortfalls. Father God sees us through the sacrifice and righteousness of His Son. That is our hope.

Hope is the second building block, rock, of our lives. And it, along with our faith, is the foundation we build our lives on. Because we believe and trust in the promises of the Lord, we are confident and secure in our hope. Even when troubles and sickness, heartaches and disappointments come (and we all know they will) our hope in the Lord remains firm and unshaken. Even Job was able to say, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.” Job 13:15a NIV

This week as we look back at our lives, let’s discover, or re-discover, our hope. When was you’re your hope born? When did storms rock you? Did your hope and faith hold strong? Did your foundation stand? Take time to thank God and Jesus, “the author and finisher of our faith” (and hope) this week. Let the world see your hope!

I thank God for each of you! And I thank you for spending time with me as we add our hope to the foundation of our lives.

Blessings and hope!