Living in Trusting Hope

Our God is a God of hope. Living in hope is Christ's plan for our lives today. But when we dig into the prophetic portions of God's Word, the future looks very bleak and hopeless. So to balance what is coming--that Jesus so vividly describes, Paul exhorts the New Testament saints to learn to live in the hope that the Old Testament Scriptures can teach.

Paul never avoided explaining the prophetic events that were coming. He even teaches through the same passage we are studying (Matthew 24) in his very first epistles (to the Thessalonians). But he always balances those prophecies of doom with comfort and hope to live by. Turn with me to Romans 15:4, and read God's Holy Word to us this Lord's Day.

Romans 15:4, 13 'For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. 13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.'

You might have hope, the God of hope, and you may abound in hope! What a grand way to live!