Thought of the week- week beginning February 4, 2024- written by Clement.

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13: 13)

Dear Brethren, Grace, Mercy and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with us now and always. Amen.

This week, I will like us to reflect on our Christian hope. Hope is a positive imagination making the Christian hope, a confident and joyful expectation of what is to come in Christ. Christian hope rests on God’s promises of what we should expect and is what we should look forward to now and in future. Can Christian hope be bad hope? Definitely Not! The Devil will hope for bad things to happen to others but often the Christian wishes for the best things for others, thus making Christian hope always good. God’s love (agape) always hopes for good things and anticipates the best in and for others and that is why it is eternal.

Christian hope can be said to have three aspects: Firstly, it should fill the lives of every Christian for when we lean on the promises of God’s word, we need not despair about situations around us, because everything is in God’s hands and since His purposes are higher than ours, all will be well. Therefore, all we must do is to trust God in His wisdom, even in the midst of chaos. Christian hope as Isaiah pointed out makes us: “wear a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:3).  The second aspect of Christian hope is, as redeemed sinners, we have a sure and certain hope of eternal life one day. This gives us the assurance that, as a pilgrim people travelling through this world, our journey through this world will end up in our eternal home with our Lord. Therefore, we need not regard ourselves as not of this world, but in this world -just travelling through it, because our citizenship is in heaven with our Lord. The third aspect of our Christian hope is that our Lord Jesus Christ is and will be coming soon. We may not be sure when this is, but it will certainly happen, therefore we need to prepare ourselves always and this Christian hope should affect the way we live now.

 1 Corinthians 13:13 speaks about the important Christian virtues of Faith, Hope and Love. The Christian is meant to have faith. The Bible highlights the importance of faith by the statement: “without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Secondly, the Christian must also have love as we are commanded not only to love God but to love our neighbours as ourselves, for God is love (1 John4:16). Thirdly, hope should underline all things as “perfect love hopes all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4).  Faith and Love (Greek agape) are well explained in the Bible respectively in Hebrews 11 and in 1 Corinthians 13, but the Bible does not designate a separate section to describe Hope (Greek elpidzo), probably because the Bible as the word of God is one of Hope- giving us the inspiration that equips and perfects us to do every good work. Hope is thus a virtue lying between faith and love. For instance, in our ordinary lives, a family with children will hope the best for them despite any setbacks in their lives because of the faith and love they have for or in the children. The love of a parent presses ahead full of hope reaching forward by faith to see a child healed, saved, and in all encounters for God’s will to be done in the child’s life so that, good will come to them. Christian hope can be seen like that- a never dying hope, always hoping for God’s will to be done.

Christian hope was made complete for us when our Lord Jesus Christ died and was resurrected giving us that hope of eternal life. How can we not be thankful and be grateful to God for this blessed hope?

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Brethren, as we approach the end of this Season of Epiphany, I will like us to remember the visit of Magi or wise men who travelled from Persia to go to Nazareth following the Star, to see our Lord Jesus Christ. The Magi undertook this long and arduous journey because of the hope and joy the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ (God made flesh) brings and will bring us. So, what do we have to do as Christians today? We should regard ourselves as travelling in the wilderness of this world and that travel should be made in the full trust and faith in God so that; by,  through and in His love, He will feed us with the manna, water and nourishment of His word on our travel, until we reach that eternal destination of life in His kingdom that He hopes for us. Amen.

Prayer:

Dear Father, help us we draw inspiration from the visit the Magi made to see our Lord Jesus Christ-your Word made flesh. Make us faithful as we undertake our own Christian journey in this world to know You more and to be your children and ambassadors in this world. May we present you with our gifts and talents and place them at your service with the blessed hope of having a place in your eternal kingdom, in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.