Christians are called by God to be people of hope. Christian hope is not wishful thinking.
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints.
When God calls us into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, we are given a glimpse of the future. At just the right time, God will restore the broken world, gathering up the shattered pieces and uniting them all in Christ. On that day, God’s peace and justice will fill the earth. Christians are called by God to be people of hope. Christian hope is not wishful thinking. Rather, it is confidence in God’s future. It is a gift from God’s Spirit. When we know the hope of our calling, we are inspired to live each day with courage and boldness, seeking God’s kingdom in all we do.
So far in this devotional series on calling in the letters of the Apostle Paul we have seen that God calls us to many things. He calls us to be His special people (1 Corinthians 1:2). He calls us into fellowship with Christ and his people (1 Corinthians 1:9). We are called to believe the good news of salvation through Christ (1 Corinthians 1:22-24). We are called to peace in our relationships (1 Corinthians 7:15), to belong to Christ (Romans 1:5-7), and to unexpected freedom (Galatians 5:13). In the letter we know as Ephesians, Paul prays for the letter’s recipients, mentioning another dimension of God’s calling: “[I pray that] . . . you may know what is the hope to which [God] has called you” (Ephesians 1:18).
The Greek behind this prayer reads more literally, “that you may know what is the hope of his calling.” God’s calling, as we have seen, is primarily God summoning us into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. God invites us to be his special people, living in his love and walking in the good works he has designed for us (Ephesians 2:10). We learned in a previous section of Ephesians that God’s mission for the cosmos will culminate in the future when God “gather[s] up all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:10). The universe, shattered by sin, will be put back together through Christ. God’s peace, permeated by righteousness, justice, and blessing, will fill the whole creation.
So, when God calls us through the gospel, we are called to a compelling vision of the future. We are called to hope.
In contemporary culture, hope is wishing for something, longing, perhaps even anticipating that we might get it. Hope sounds like, “Oh, I hope the pandemic will soon be over. Oh, I hope we can start being with people again. Oh, I hope the economy will recover.” You can even hope for things that are quite unlikely: “Oh, I hope we won’t have any more fires in California this year” (even though I’m pretty sure and sad that we will). Hope is longing, wishing, and desiring, whether or not that for which you hope will happen.
Biblical hope is different. Far beyond wishful thinking, it is deep confidence. It is a conviction about the future. Christian hope is knowing that what God has begun in Christ God will complete when the time is just right. We are called, not just to any old hope, but too confident hope.
This kind of hope isn’t something we conjure up through our own efforts. Rather, it is something to which we are called, something is given to us as a gift of God’s Spirit. Notice that Paul did not tell the Ephesians to be more hopeful. Rather, he prayed that God would help them to know of the hope of God’s calling. Hope comes from God’s work in us through the Spirit. When we embrace the hope of the gospel, not only do we look forward to God’s future but also we are empowered to live boldly and courageously every day.
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