May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
Romans 15:13
The Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), wrote about his years in Nazi concentration camps. In his book Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl says that without hope, survival in those camps was impossible.
Dr. Frankl tells about a prisoner that came to him one day, relating a dream he had the night before. In that dream, the prisoner said that on a certain date—which was about a month away—he saw he was to be released from prison. Frankl says that for the entire month that man’s hope was vibrant with expectation. Sadly, the month came and went, and there was no release. Slowly, the man’s hope declined, and was replaced by disappointment, then a lost hope.*
The Christian’s hope is not based on some ephemeral dream and fantasy. Our hope is sure and certain, because it is founded on the fact of the resurrected Christ, who said before he ascended into heaven, “I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:2-3).
Penetrating into the very Holy of Holies, the believer’s hope is found where Jesus our Lord sits at the Father’s right hand: “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 6:19-20).
God wants his people to know that he is “the God of hope.” He is the One who has freely provided for our salvation, who has prepared an eternal home for his people, and whose Son will return for his faithful Bride. He has promised never to leave or forsake his own. This God wants his people to “abound in hope.” Regardless of trials, suffering, and tribulations, by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, each believer has every reason to overflow with a hope that is centered on the Man at God’s right hand!
Are you abounding in hope today?
Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, rev. (New York:Washington Square Press, 1959), 28.
Taken from . . .
Renewed by the Spirit: 365 Daily Meditations
by Ralph I. Tilley
copyright © 2016 Ralph I. Tilley
(May be copied for noncommercial purposes;
not to exceed 500 copies.)
