Hope

Genesis 22:7-8, [Isaac said], “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”

Whose faith can match Abraham’s faith at this moment? God provided Abraham a son; he knew God could provide another one. This was Abraham’s hope. As Paul describes, “In hope he believed against hope” (Romans 4:18).

What is hope? “The conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Hope in God, therefore, is the conviction—the knowing—that God will do as He promised, and that He will do it in His own way.

What is your hope? That God will raise you from the dead just as He raised Christ from the dead (Romans 6:5). That Jesus will come again. If we are to have hope like Abraham, we are to have the conviction that God will raise us from the dead and Jesus will come again, knowing these things will come about in God’s own timing. Hope in God never disappoints. Fully convinced that God will raise us from the dead and that Jesus will come again, let us live with the comfort of this knowledge.