Hope is a powerful thing. Without it, you cannot escape the suffocating cycles of sin or destructive emotions in your life.
But with it, you can overcome any challenge you face, no matter how impossible they may seem.
That’s why Paul prays earnestly to God for the Ephesians to have hope even in their trying circumstances.
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what is the richness of His glorious inheritance in the [saints], and what is His exceedingly great power toward us who keep trusting Him—in keeping with the working of His mighty strength.”
Ephesians 1:18-19 TLV
In this passage, Paul prays that you and I would know three things.
- The hope of His calling,
- The richness of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and
- His exceedingly great power.
In this post, I want to reflect on what it means to have the “hope of His calling,” and how hope is a powerful instrument in our spiritual toolbox.
Hope is the secret key that can unlock the door of despair and let you out of its suffocating darkness.
If this sounds like pie-in-the-sky thinking, you may not be thinking of the same kind of hope of which Paul is speaking.
In today’s use of the word, hope is simply a wish or desire.
This kind of hope is no more powerful then the wind generated by the beating of a mosquito’s wings.
I used to cry out to God day and night to free me from my pornography addiction hoping he would free me some day.
But in hoping to be free, I was really just wishing to be free. Wishing to be free did absolutely nothing to help me.
It only made me more anxious, which then led me to look for more of the comfort I thought I could find in pornography.
Instead of freeing me, this wishful hope produced more of the sin in me that I loathed!
Because I didn’t have the kind of hope that Paul was speaking of here in Ephesians 1:18, I didn’t experience the benefit of this powerful virtue in my life.
Man’s kind of hope—the wishing kind—is weak and fruitless. God’s kind of hope, however, is strong and effective. It will change your life!
So what is biblical hope?
In the Bible, hope is understood as a confident expectation and firm assurance regarding things that are unseen and future.
Unlike the uncertain kind of hope used in our everyday language, biblical hope is certain, rooted in God’s character, promises, and actions.
It’s not wishful thinking but a secure assurance.
How can anyone know the future so as to be sure about anything? If you’ve already tried and failed to stay pure a thousand times, how can you have assurance that everything will change?
The way you can have assurance about the future while not knowing the future is by knowing God’s character.
Biblical hope is a vision of the future based on who you know God to be as revealed in his Word.
You could also say it this way: biblical hope is not based on what you know of the future but what you know of God’s character.
Is God a slave to sin? No. Is he powerless, hopelessly lost in addiction? Of course not. Is he impure? On the contrary, He is entirely holy.
And does He love you? Absolutely, He does! So much so that He gave His most treasured gift for you, His Son.
Therefore, when He says to you in His word that “he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ,” you can rest assured that He will not allow you to remain in addiction and impurity if you hold fast to Him. (Philippians 1:6)
He will free you from sin! You can know this not because you have seen the future, but because you have come to know and trust God’s character.
Knowing who he is, and the promises that he’s made to you as his son or daughter, allows hope for the future that He wants for you to arise.
Even the worst circumstances and disappointments in life cannot destroy your confidence in this vision of future because you know that this vision of the future originated in God, is informed by his Word, and is backed by his power.
This is biblical hope.
If you are God’s child, you have been called to a certain kind of future.
You’ve been called to a pure life, free from sin and guilt!
You’ve been called to manifest the glory of Christ Jesus through your thoughts and actions.
When you begin to have confidence and secure assurance that this future will indeed happen by the grace of God, you will know “the hope of your calling.”
