Keep Your Hopes Up

God wants to eradicate today the phrase "Don't get your hopes up. " The Christmas season is all about keeping our hope up. The Bible is clear that hope doesn't disappoint. (Romans 5:5) Hope keeps us going when the cares of this world try to stop us, depress us, and paralyze us.

Romans 15:13 says "I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit." Hope originates from God and because God never disappoints, hope does not disappoint.

What we are hoping for may change, but the essence of hope, the spirit of hope does not. True hope yields to God's will, allowing Him to change or shape what we are hoping for. Jesus Himself embodies this idea. He came to save and redeem the world. He came to bring life. (Luke 19:10, John 10:10) He came to fulfill scripture and the cross was the only way to do it. Still, even Jesus asked if the cup of suffering could be taken away. However He added not His will, but God's will be done. (Matthew 26) No one hopes for the pain of the cross but, they hope for the outcome of the cross.

As we pick up our cross daily, it is a symbolic death to selfishness. (Matthew 16:24-26, 1 Corinthians 15:31) It is saying God your will above mine. Your goodness above all. Moreover as I die to myself, I actually gain my life back. Jesus walked out this concept. From death comes life. From Jesus' sacrifice and death came life for all. I die daily with the hope of life coming in return.

Again, hope doesn't disappoint. I anchor my hope in God. I anchor my hope in His holy word. The Bible is truth, so as I walk it out I am not disappointed. I really can have all it says I can have.

So with 2 days left; Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, get your hopes up. Jesus is hope fulfilled. Jesus is the hope the world had been waiting for. Jesus brought hope when the light was wavering and was dim. That same hope and life is available and just as present today. Look forward to today and how God will bring about the personal things you've been anticipating. Renew your hope that He who began a good work in you will complete it. (Phillipians 1:6) Where you are today doesn't have to be the same place tomorrow. Hope for better things for yourself and your life. Hope doesn't disappoint.