“Passion for the Promise!”
- Jan 16
- 6 min read
Lewis Smedes wrote, "Hope is no longer a passion for the possible. It becomes a passion for the promise."
Such a “Passion for the promise” must focus solely on God’s grace, goodness and power and His promises of hope, securing life now and our future redemption, through faith in Jesus.
If ‘Peace with God’ are some of the most important words to declare as a Christian (see last weeks blog), this must mean “No Hope” has also been dealt with.
I’m told 'Hope' or “hoped, hopeful, hopes, and hoping” appear over 160 times in the Bible. The Psalms have more references to ‘hope’ than any other book in the Bible. You may be surprised to note the next book with the most references is Job, followed by Romans!
Timothy Keller said, “Biblical hope is life-changing certainty about the future ... being certain about the future in a way that affects how you live now.”
Did you note, 'Being so certain about the future that it affects how you and I live NOW!'
This passage is where we’ve picked up on the notion of our series, “so that you may know him better.”
The text later says, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.”
This hope has to be the driving force for our day-to-day living. As Erwin McManus comments, hope "lifts us out of the rubble of our failures, our pain and our fear to rise above what at one point seemed insurmountable. Our ability to endure, to persevere, to overcome is fuelled by this one seemingly innocuous ingredient called hope."
The hymn writer knew -
My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
What a 'passion for the promise!' We can say with the writer of Hebrews, "we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure" (Heb 6:19). Hallelujah!
J.I. Packer also states, “New Testament Christianity is a religion of hope, a faith that looks forward. For the Christian, the best is always yet to be... It teaches us to think of our hope not as a possibility nor yet as a likelihood, but as a guaranteed certainty, because it is a promised inheritance.”
Paul prays that they "may know the hope to which he has called you."
'Hope' (Greek elpis) means to have an expectation and a great confident active faith. It’s a 'passion for the promise' which is a living, breathing, active HOPE! It’s "the looking forward to something with some reason for confidence respecting fulfilment, hope, expectation."
It’s seeing and indeed living the 'Hope' of God’s call on our lives. What is this call? Paul tells us clearly in verses 4-5, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”
We are “called to one hope” (Eph 4:4). God and His glorious future, constitute our hope. We are called to such hope; this is God’s divine purpose for all of us as believers. That’s our calling. Father God chose us in Christ. He purposed to form a people that would be holy and a people that would resemble His Son. But, Paul knows the church in Ephesus. He knows that they have lost their vision and their sense of hope. Sure, they know it as a doctrine, but they have lost the experience of it.
Does this describe where we are today? If so, Paul prays that God will enlighten their hearts so that they may know the hope of God's calling again!
What about it as we go into this new year? Why not pray that our lives and that of the church going forward will have that living, breathing, active HOPE! Such a hope that will expand and embrace a big future, rather than shrink in discontent, resentment and discouragement, or just end up in the dry, parched wasteland of life.
Paul prays something for these Christians and we need the same, that we’ll get our eyes open to the everything that’s available to us, having that 'passion for the promise' again!
Let’s thank God today. He is a God of hope and by His grace we are moved from the margins of life and become central to His story being worked out in and through us!
Alistair Begg states, "When a church is gripped by God’s grace—when its members focus their heart-eyes on Jesus and on eternity; when the buffeting of circumstances don’t shake their hope, and they live for the riches of knowing God rather than the fleeting treasures of this world; when they look to and live out of a power greater than themselves—then the glory of God is revealed.”
Hope is about a Person - "May the God of Hope" (He’s the origin of hope).
No God, there’s no hope; know God, know hope! He’s the source and fountain of Hope!
No matter how dire the circumstances, no matter how big the enemy, no matter how deep the sin, how lost the people, how dark the future, Father God repeatedly gives His people reasons to hope. God has brought the assurance of that hope for a brighter tomorrow through Jesus our risen Lord and King!
When Paul writes the “God of hope,” he means that God is the source of all real hope. Hope originates with Him, and is the result of knowing God. Christian hope is set apart from every form of merely hopeful expectation because it is founded upon the trustworthiness of God's promises and all that God is.
What is hope? Someone defined it this way: "Hope is a future certainty grounded in a present reality." Here’s another: "Hope is wishing for what God has already promised us."
As believers, our hope is not a faint or obscure wish. We cannot experience real hope outside a relationship with God, and real Hope is fuelled by the conviction that God is able to do what He has planned. It’s that confident expectation, the sure certainty that what God has promised in His Word is true in and through Christ the Person of Hope.
Paul’s letter was about the issues facing the church in Ephesus. It was such a diverse congregation of Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, all of varying levels of spiritual maturity. But Paul still calls the church to live confidently as Christians, marked by a distinct and abounding hope.
We’re called to walk His kingdom path and in so doing prepare a way for His Kingdom to come - one of HOPE! Do you see, hope changes you? Joy and peace come, not from external circumstances, but through a relationship with God. In fact, we’re filled with joy and peace to live such a life of hope!
In his book, ‘Your Attitude’, John Maxwell tells the story about a small town that was proposed for the site of a hydro-electric plant. The plan called for a dam to be built across the river and the town would become submerged beneath the water. When the project was announced, the people were given ample time to arrange their affairs and to prepare for relocation. Over the next few months, however, a curious thing happened. All improvements on the town ceased. No repairs were made on the buildings, roads, or footpaths, and no painting was done. With each passing day, the entire town was falling apart and quickly growing aged and worn. One resident explained, "Where there is no faith in the future, there is no power in the present." The town was covered by a cloud of hopelessness.
So, the challenge is to have a 'passion for the promise' and embracing such promises, waiting with hope.
Jeremiah knew about God’s promises. In 585 BC, Babylonians had destroyed Jerusalem and Jeremiah was left crushed, heartbroken, desperately looking out over the ruins of the city. Then all of a sudden in the midst of this heartbreaking story, this dark experience, the pain, something happens. "Yet there is one ray of hope: His compassion never ends. Great is his faithfulness; his loving-kindness begins afresh each day" (Lam 3:21ff).
Jeremiah had realised that despite where he was, a 'passion for the promise' had become real again, and with it the wonder of such Hope in God. He fuels life of the possible, even through the impossible, because He always is and remains the ground and foundation of all hope, even when everything is in ruins!
So, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.”
Oh Harry, the above is so powerful and I have had my eyes opened afresh.
This has given me a renewed awareness and a greater understanding of Hope and its many dimensions. Such Clarity now, and for this I thank you. God Bless You.
Thank you so much Harry. I have always struggled with the concept of 'sure and certain hope'. It seemed like a paradox to me. This has surely helped me. I think God drew me to your piece today as he knew I needed it (I had not read you for many weeks). This has given me new understanding and I will re read this many times to overcome my inbuilt questioning of 'Hope'. Thank you and God bless you x