Psalm 130: 5-8 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.  O Israel, hope in the Lord!  For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.  And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.  Commentary:  The word hope in our present thinking most often carries the idea of wishful thinking, but in biblical thought, hope was synonymous with certainty.  (Heb 11:1 )The psalmist puts his hope in God’s Word; he is standing on the promises of God.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  Commentary: Faith treats the thinks hooped for as facts and places confidence today in what has been promised for the future.  It is an absolute conviction-based on the assurance of God’s unchangeable and perfect character-that God’s romises will be gulfilled.  For the unbeliever, “Seeing is believing.”  For the believer, “Believing is seeing.” (Romans 8:24, 1Peter 1:8,9)

Romans 8: 24-25 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. (Romans 8:18-30 is about future glory)

My great aunt, Annie, and I were talking this week about hope and what it truly means and how to share it with others.  To be able to share with others that hope isn’t just this, “I am wishing for” but true biblical hope is certainty.  I believe we were talking about Catholicism when this came up, how they don’t really “believe” (maybe if that’s the right word” in hope because they don’t fully rely on God’s work.  They kind of read it, (or take parts of it and use) but rely more on other writings/teachings from other “people”.  They don’t really know if they will go to heaven until they get to maybe purgatory? (I don’t quite know all the details about how they believe the “order of things” after death.  Jaden was sharing what she has recently learned about it and we were discussing/discerning some scripture and such to share with Catholics.)  But our main thought was how sad to be missing out on such an incredible part of what the Lord gives us.  Hope!  That hope we can patiently wait for and be certain of.  I’ve been thinking about that a lot since we talked about it, how simple yet profound that is (hope synonymous with certainty) how it’s one more little tool to use when talking about Jesus.  I’m sure I’ve been told that numerous times but this time it stuck.  Sometimes our (my) thick heds have to be told something numerous times before it “sticks”.  I’m thankful for my conversation with Jaden that lead to my conversation with Annie.

Thank you Jesus for suffering the way you did.  For me.  For all of us.  We (I) don’t deserve it in the slightest (and I pray we don’t take it for granted).  But, because you suffered, died a slow agonizing death and then conquered death, we can hope in a future with You.  Praise you Lord, that we can be certain with that. )If we are born again believers.)  And if you aren’t a born again believer…..today is the day.  Right now is the time.  We aren’t promised tomorrow.