Thursday: The Holy Spirit and Hope
Read Romans 5:4-5; Romans 15:13; and 1 Corinthians 13:13. How are love and hope related to each other? How is the Holy Spirit instrumental in giving us love and hope?
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
The Holy Spirit is the One who has poured out the love of God within our hearts. He connects us to God and makes God’s love dwell in us. God’s steadfast and unchanging love is the reason and the bedrock of our hope. Without love there would be no hope. Only love generates hope. Because God’s love is combined with His faithfulness, we have the wonderful hope that He will come again and take us home to where He is.
Read Psalm 31:24. What effects does hope have on us?
Hope inspires. Hope gives new strength. Hope lets us sing and be joyful. Hope is essential for life. Without hope, what is the purpose of life?
Having hope, however, is something different from being optimistic. The optimist thinks that everything will get better: the weather, the economy, the school grades, the finances, et cetera. Hope, instead, is not blind optimism. Rather, it is grounded in God’s faithfulness and in the promises that He has given in the past. Hope believes that God will fulfill what He has said because He is faithful and true. God has proven to be dependable, and He does not waver. His steadfastness and truth are the foundation for our hope.
No question, too, the foundation of our hope is found in Jesus on the cross. When we look to the cross, we can see in the most powerful way possible the reality of God’s love for us. The cross, with Jesus dying for our sins, gives us and the universe an unparalleled revelation of just what our God is truly like. Thus, as fallen and temporal beings in a vast and big cosmos, we can find hope, not in ourselves or in whatever “great” things we accomplish, but in our God, a God who has revealed Himself to us on the cross.
| How is the Advent hope grounded in God’s faithful promises? How does hope influence our life? How can we develop a lifestyle that reflects hope instead of despair? |
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God is faithful which alone gives us hope..hope for today and hope in believing we are forgiven for our sins...hope for a pure heart and reconciliation to God through His Son by His Spirit..without hope, there is no faith..having hope is like a mustard seed..small hope leads to great faith as the Spirit continues to show God and His faithfulness..and love for God grows.
Amen.
Sure, Dennis! I could also add that great hope can be achieved by a small faith - which can be enough if we keep it even as little light in the heart!
God can work in our hope, a feeling of future tense, when we abide with Him now, today! When Jesus becomes a friend of present tense, although we know nothing of the future, we can cling to good feelings of love and care! Our choices do not change God!
Christ is the actual object of the believer's Hope, because it is in His second coming that the hope of glory will be fulfilled.(1Timothy 1:1; Colossians 1:27; Titus 2:13)
We hope because God loves us and because of His faithfulness that has been revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.
Hope does not disappoint hence hope is an assurance not probability, and we have this hope that burns within our hearts, hope in the coming of the Lord. May the Holy Spirit lead us daily that our life reflects the hope inside our hearts.
hope is a human emotion, love is a characteristic of the LORD. Because the LORD loves me I have hope.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)
We have faith therefore we have that hope.
Hope is based on a certain revelation to us. Our great need begs for something to hope for. When the slightest sign of encouragement show up it germinates hope.
I just want to take the time to thank God for giving us constant revelation. We as a people have been given amazing and consistent proof of God's guidance. Not only through the writings, (e-mail) through E.G. White, but also through the Sabbath school lessons all those years. One could see God involvement in the preparation of these study helps. The subjects always seem to be exactly what is needed at the time.
"Thank you God
The one word "Hope", is a great topic to build a quarterly lesson around. Because He is faithful, God is my hope.
Hi.
I know the lesson is passed.
But it just occurred to me, that one way to answer the first question, is that the gift of Hope,helps to provide the ability to withstand, hence 'love' in action.
Well The Holy Spirit made it occur to me anyway.
Any thoughts?