Listen:  150.7

I can’t imagine a more deplorable condition than that of losing HOPE. This believer needs to be reminded of what the Bible says about “hope,” for each promise God has given us is a SURE HOPE that we can believe in with the utmost confidence.

Titus 1:2 speaks of the “hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began.” What a promise! Who made this promise? “God, that cannot lie” made this promise! Let this truth sink into the heart of any believer who is starting to doubt God’s infallible, inerrant Word.

Titus 2:13 tells us when this shall be fulfilled, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” Though we possess eternal life the moment we believe on Christ as our Savior, we won’t experience it in its fullness until the Lord Jesus comes to summon us to glory. Then we’ll be in the very scene of eternal life!

In Hebrews 6:13-14 we are reminded of God’s promise to bless Abraham and in verse 15 we see that “after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.” God uses this example to assure us that His promises to us WILL NOT FAIL, for verses 17-20 boldly declare, “In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us” (NASB). If these words don’t encourage your friend to recapture their hope in God and His Word, nothing will. God has not only given us a PROMISE, but He confirmed it with an OATH. He wants us be to absolutely sure that what He has promised us WILL COME TO PASS! Here again we’re reminded too that it’s “impossible for God to lie.” The Spirit of God then uses three words to drive home the truth of the SURE HOPE we have. Believers are seen as having fled from this world’s doom to a heavenly REFUGE. This hope is like an ANCHOR that is already securely anchored in heaven. And our Savior, who has entered heaven before us, is our FORERUNNER, thus His presence in heaven insures that all who belong to Him will also enter in. Dear fellow-believer, is it not crystal-clear that the HOPE we have is a SURE HOPE, and that every believer on earth is as certain of heaven as those who are already there?

If we do find ourselves “losing hope,” the fault is not in God, but it lies within ourselves. Perhaps there is unconfessed sin that has robbed us of our joy and peace, or it may be we have neglected His Word and prayer, which always leads to doubts and uncertainty. Whatever the cause, may we be honest with God our Father and go to Him as a child and pour out our hearts to Him whose ears are always open to our prayers. Like David in Psalm 51:12 we can pray, “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation.”

Our prayer for this dear believer will be the prayer of Romans 15:13, “Now the God of hope fill you with joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.”  (150.7)  (DO)