GOD IS MY HOPE AND JOY

SATURDAY, 25th NOVEMBER, 2023.

Author: PASTOR DR. SAMUEL AYORINDE – General Overseer

Topic: GOD IS MY HOPE AND JOY

MEMORIZE: “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” 1 John 3:2.

SCRIPTURE READING: Psalm 84:9-12

“O God, behold our shield, And look upon the face of Your anointed. 10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly. 12 O LORD of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You!”

EXPOSITION:

God himself is our hope, and joy. Hope is one of the three main elements of Christian character (1 Cor. 13:13). It is joined to faith and love, and is opposed to seeing or possessing (Rom. 8:24 “For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees?”; 1 John 3:2 “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”). "Hope is an essential and fundamental element of Christian life, so essential indeed, that, like faith and love, it can itself designate the essence of Christianity (1 Peter 3:15 “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;”; Heb. 10:23 “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”). 

In this hope in Christ Jesus, the whole glory of the Christian vocation is centred (“the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,” Eph. 1:18; “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling;” 4:4)." Unbelievers are without this hope (Eph. 2:12 “that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”; 1 Thess. 4:13 “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.”). 

Christ is the actual object of the believer's hope, because it is in his second coming that the hope of glory will be fulfilled (1 Tim. 1:1 “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,”; Col. 1:27 “To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”; Titus 2:13 “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,”). It is spoken of as "lively", i.e., a living, hope, a hope not frail and perishable, but having a perennial life (1 Peter 1:3 “Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;”). In Rom. 5:2 the "hope" spoken of is probably objective, i.e., "the hope set before us," namely, eternal life (comp. 12:12). In 1 John 3:3 the expression "hope in him" ought rather to be, as in the Revised Version, "hope on him," i.e., a hope based on God.

PRAYER POINT:  Lord, increase my joy in your hope in Jesus name.

DAILY BIBLE READING IN A YEAR –  

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ANCHOR OF LIFE is the daily devotional guide written by PASTOR DR. SAMUEL AYORINDE, General Overseer, Anchor of Life & Redemption Ministry Int’l. It is an extraction of God’s word designed to draw the sincere seekers closer to God on a daily basis through an insightful exposition and analysis of God’s Word. 

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