Finding the way to happiness is a lifelong pursuit. Happiness comes and goes, but the blessings of God always remain; they are ever-present.
Take time now to learn the pathway of blessedness that leads to the very presence of God, the source of all joy.
In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:11-12
What does it mean to hope? I think for a lot of us, hope makes us think of things that we wish would happen, even if they never do. Like when I was in high school, I really hoped that one day I would be a college football player. Some of us hope for dreams like that – places we’d like to go, things we’d like to do, people we’d like to meet. We hope for big things like peace in the world and equality for all people and for everyone to feel loved and valued.
One thing we should always remember is that hope is not passive. Following Jesus Christ means we hold on to active hope. It is the hope that we are willing to commit our lives to and invest our dreams in, and it is hope that we are willing to share with others, hope that is always leading us forward. To set our hope in Christ means that we have hope for this world and we have hope that God can do more than we can think or dream or imagine. But it also means we are willing to work to make that hope a reality. As we close a week thinking about true happiness, may we always remember this is what the Kingdom of God is about most of all – making hope a reality for everyone.
Chris Hughes
God of hope, I pray that today I would hold on to hope, not as some far-off dream but as an immediate possibility. Help me to practice active hope by being your hands and feet in a broken world. Teach me to shine hope like light into the darkness and, by your Holy Spirit, to overcome it. Amen.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.
Ephesians 1:3-4