The Hope of Glory

What is the one and only solid hope in which to see our hearts anchored? Joshua Hawkins articulates so well what has been churning in my own heart this past year. Below is an excerpt from a recent blog post of his:

"The restoration of true biblical hope, the hope of glory...

"The western church today is almost completely disconnected from the New Testament idea of “hope”, minimizing it to an emotion to help sustain us before we have power, dominion, influence, or lasting peace and joy in this age. But the New Testament idea of hope is completely anchored in the age to come, in which Jesus will come, establish His kingdom, and abolish death forever. Signs and wonders, healings, joy, and revival are not manifest evidences of Christ's kingdom breaking in to the earth today, but are something much more important - they are heightened, undeniable evidences to the coming day of the Lord where He will establish His messianic kingdom on the earth, give the saints a resurrected body free of imperfections, and deal with sin and death forever.

If we set our hope on “now” so that we believe that our mandate is societal transformation, great revival, or some great influence of the church on the world in this age, will we be found disillusioned and offended at God if those things do not come to pass in the way we think they will? The biblical hope does not disappoint in any way (Romans 5:5), because the resurrection of Christ and the Spirit living in us guarantees the promises of God (Ephesians 1:14; 2 Cor 1:20). God raised Jesus from the dead as the clearest evidence of His identity as Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36), and this is what provoked the Jews to believe in His return to make all things new (Ephesians 1:9-10). Every time someone is healed or delivered, every time someone shakes or is overwhelmed by God’s presence, and every time our hearts are filled with God’s joy, God is giving us an undeniable, divine witness to His promise, and this is what anchors us in the hope of the restoration of all things. We must not minimize these witnesses, but see them as divine assistance to propel our hearts deeper in the "hope to which He has called us" (Ephesians 1:18)."