Thursday 19th December

So its the final countdown ( can you hear the background music?)   The kids are getting excited.  Presents are wrapped and already being poked at.  Christmas parties are well underway and Im doing my last stint at work today.  Schools break up tomorrow.  Even the weather has decided to get in on the act - cold and blustery although no snow as yet.

We are looking forward to next week.  We are all hoping to have a lovely time - time off work, time with family and/or friends, time to lie in and watch telly and eat too much.  We might be hoping that Santa brings us some much longed for gift or that we get to see someone we haven't seen for ages.   We are designed and created to hope for things.

The hope of the righteous brings joy  ( Prov 10:28)

Hope is a strange thing.  its not the same as being wishful.  I can wish to wake up tomorrow looking like Marilyn Monroe but it aint gonna happen.  However I can hope that by Easter I might be able to fit into that new outfit if I lose a few pounds and keep up the fitness regime.   Hope has a realistic end goal and some way of getting there.  Wishes are flim flam and fairy dust usually

  The Bible says that ' hope deferred makes the heart sick'  ( Prov 13 ;12)    in other words, if we have our eye on an achievable and reasonable goal but for some reason we are not making any progress towards it, then we get our hearts broken.  Or we get depressed.  Or we become ill.   It is important that our hopes are fulfilled - so its important that we are hoping for the right things.   And if our hearts are sick and we cant quite

work out why - maybe its because we are hoping for the ' wrong' things.  Maybe our expectations are faulty - because God is not a God of disappointment.

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
    on those who hope in his steadfast love,  ( Ps 33:18)

You arent going to go far wrong if you believe in , trust in, hope for God's love.    Of course we only need to hope for it when we are not currently experiencing it.  When God seems distant and prayers go unanswered.  When all is opposition and difficulty and hardship.  Those are the times we need to hope in His steadfast love.  Reach out for it in full expectation.  Actively pursue it, wait for it, watch for the signs. 

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.   (1 Pet 1;13)   

Of course ultimately when all is hopeless and heaven is brass we have one promise which above all gives us hope - the  hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began ( Titus 1;2)

Advent is traditionally a time not only of looking forward to Christmas but of looking forward to the day when Jesus comes back.   To a day when we can put off this life and put on eternity.  Dont know about you but I cant wait - there's only so much housework and sock washing a body can take in a lifetime!  So lets fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith and as we approach a new year let us resolve to hope for the fulfillment of the Godly desires of our hearts.

Lord, show us where we have faulty expectations and unrealistic dreams.  Adjust our hopes to be in line with what you have planned for us and then help us to stride out towards those goals with hope in our hearts.  As we wait for you to come again let us never lose hope in your great love for us.  Amen