wishing and hoping

When you base your thoughts, emotions, and actions on "hope", what do you assume will happen? Are you just optimistic that things will work out for the best if you can just persevere? Maybe you are sure that the future will work in your favor and you just need to hang in there til then? There is a possibility that "hope" is a certainty that today is 'perfect' for you because your circumstances are not what makes your life abundant and virtuous.



Most Christians understand that Biblical "hope" refers to assurance or guarantee. When you read verses like this, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," are you hearing about assurance of a future of what WILL BE or a present certainty of what is? Is God telling you in His Word "what you experience today is not the end of His story" or is scripture saying, "what you are experiencing now is His story?"

The assumptions you make about "hope" will determine in a large part how you think, feel, and act each moment of your life. The assumptions you hold dear about "hope" will largely impact what you know about the abundant and virtuous life.

Wisdom is not easy. Often it is uninvited, awkward, intrusive and disruptive. Too often we avoid the tough reflection of our assumptions. This leaves us pretending that life works in a way it really doesn't.

How do you pin point your assumptions? How do you scrub through your thoughts to locate uncertainty about what you really believe?

Before you have a view, you have core assumptions, beliefs you hold dear that you never question that come b4worldview.

b4worldview, a Chrsitian education organization, now has a brief quiz or a survey (36 questions taking 5 mins) that you can take as a checkup, like an x-ray of your soul and IT'S FREE.

go to http://b4worldviewsurvey.com/  and GET STARTED, there's no better time than now.

What are you sure of? How do your assumptions really affect you? Be careful, finding out may make you a bit wiser.

BTW, the next verse reads, "to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."

The hope you have is both providing for you in the moment and reserved for you in the future.

WHAT A DEAL God has for YOU. 

Now that's worth pondering ......