Mini-Hope?

** …of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope…** 1 Timothy 1:1

We all live our lives in mini-hopes.

I hope I get picked for the kickball team. I hope I pass my final exam. I hope I get into college. I hope I get married and have a family. I hope my children stay out of trouble. I hope I get a raise at work. I hope my car lasts the winter. We live our days in mini-hopes.

‘Hope’ is a desire for something yet to be received. Hope is also looking for something in the future that we think will make us happy, at least temporarily.

Our mini-hopes are something positive that we desire for ourselves that we would like to see a fast-food answer to. We want to have it now. But these mini-hopes are a false substitute for True Hope.

Mini-hopes create worry about all the little things that clutter our minds. We allow today’s problems to fog our hearts from what or who is most important. Mini-hopes keep our focus on the here and now. True Hope lifts our eyes to eternity.

When Job faced his many losses, by chapter 6 of his book, he often spoke of hopelessness. At the loss of nearly everything dear to him, he felt there was nothing left for him to hope for. Job’s heart was attached to mini-hopes, the things (good things) of this world.

Our own desire for earthly possessions, relationships and achievements can also distract us from the true meaning of hope. Job lost hope because the things he could see and touch had vanished in a day.

But David understood that his hope was in the Lord…in the Psalms he tells us…

** Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: ** Psalm 146:5

** The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy. ** Psalm 147:11

Whatever we need or desire, the Lord is the One who will provide it. We live out each day with our laundry list of dreams and want-to’s, expecting the Lord to give us the life our minds and hearts have created. Not because we deserve it, but just because we want ease and comfort and a life without pain and suffering. The Lord in His grace and mercy gives us many of these good things, but His desire is that we would **set our hearts on things above and not on things of the earth. **

The Prophet Jeremiah, who lived a very challenging, uncomfortable life, tells us that…

** Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is.** Jeremiah 17:7

** It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. ** Lamentations 3:26

Jeremiah understood that this life would be filled with hardship, haters, and heartaches, especially because he chose to do what the Lord had given him to do. He didn’t waste his time ‘hoping’ for the glittery things of this life. His hope was in the Lord, in doing what He asked of him, and in what was waiting for him on the other side of eternity. He faced each day with the True Hope that one day he would be free of this life and its hardships. He kept his eyes on the prize, on the loving welcome and problem free paradise that was waiting for him.

All of us would love to live a life of ease and comfort. We would love to just keep having our mini-hopes satisfied on a daily basis. But if we truly want all that the Lord has for us, we will look up and hope in and quietly wait for our salvation to be complete. We will anxiously wait to see the Lord, our True Hope, face-to-face. And we will lay aside the mini-hopes and desire the greater things of eternity.