A man approached a little league baseball game one afternoon.
He asked a boy in the dugout what the score was.
The boy responded, “Eighteen to nothing–we’re behind.”
“Boy,” said the spectator, “I’ll bet you’re discouraged.”
“Why should I be discouraged?” replied the little boy.
“We haven’t even gotten up to bat yet!”
Now that is hope!
In my series of blogs through Romans 6-8, we have come to Romans 8:24-25:
“For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.”
In verses 24-25, we see the challenge we have here on earth as we wait for our new future in Christ to be realized.
We are to have an attitude of hope, which implies that there is far more awaiting us in the future than anything that we have now.
Hope in the Bible means “having a confident expectation of something not seen.”
In verse 24, the phrase “for in hope we have been saved” has the idea that we have been delivered in hope.
In context, Paul is referring to our being delivered from the power of sin to rule our lives and experiencing victory by the Holy Spirit’s power (Rom. 8:1-13).
In this life we can walk by the Spirit or by the flesh, so we long for the final deliverance from sin’s very presence.
This deliverance we do not see yet, but we are confidently expecting it in the future.
Our new future in Christ brings a challenge that we need to wait for it patiently.
This is not easy by any stretch of the imagination, whether it is waiting for a new job, the end of COVID-19, or a rebellious child to come back to the Lord.
Our waiting patiently here should be a constant reminder that ultimately we should be focusing on Christ’s return for us.
In the meantime, we should be looking forward with “hope” to all that God has promised for our future; and patiently enduring our present sufferings that we go through down here.
Since we are not experiencing our new future yet, we desperately need the power of the Holy Spirit to endure when we are suffering.
A man was on his first cruise, and it was a long and rough Atlantic crossing.
He got seasick and was leaning over the rail of the ocean liner and had turned several shades of green.
A steward came along and tried to cheer him up by saying, “Don’t be discouraged, sir! You know, no one’s ever died of seasickness yet!”
The nauseous passenger looked up at the steward with miserable eyes and replied, “Oh, don’t say that! It’s only the hope of dying, that’s kept me alive this long!”
No matter what we may go through here, we can live with hope as we wait for our new future in Christ to be realized.
Blessings!
Pastor Ken Keeler, Director of Church Ministries