We all want HOPE.

We often hope things will get better. We hope someone will get well. We hope to get a job. We hope to meet someone special. We hope our children will grow up strong and healthy. We hope we get a raise or a bonus. We hope we live a good long life with the people we love.

Sometimes we put our hope in our abilities or in what we can accomplish, or in how we look or in our wealth, or in our power.

Hope is often our longings for something to happen in the future.

But what about Hope now?

I believe Jesus came to offer us HOPE. Now. In our everyday lives. Moment by moment. Hope in His Truth.

I believe He came to show us the best way to walk in this world. I believe He came to offer us Joy and Peace in a weary world.

I think we humans often twist His message. I feel we make it about good and bad, about who’s in and who’s out, about rules, instead of about a relationship with Him, and about Grace.

Too often we make it about doing, and striving, and a list of requirements, and miss the Love, Joy, Peace, and Acceptance that He came to give us in a world where we face troubles and challenges.

He came to bring HOPE. In our present moments. God is a God of the present. God is working in the present and meets us in the present. Our hope isn’t in some far-off event, our Hope is in the Truth of God loving us right now. Our Hope is in God meeting us right where we are, and providing for us, and offering us His goodness and grace no matter what is going on in our lives or what someone else is doing or not doing or no matter what someone else is saying. Our Hope is in believing God is who He says He is, and He will do what He says He will do. Our Hope is in God’s love for us. Our Hope is in believing that He is working all things for our benefit and growth so that we know and experience Him more fully here in this fallen world.

He wants us to know we are loved. Now. We are good. Now. We are accepted. Now. We are enough. Now.

My prayer this Christmas season is that you find HOPE in Him… that you know joy, and gladness, and peace, as you celebrate with family and friends.

A prayer.

Dear Loving and Gracious God,

I thank you for sending your Son to the world to bring us Joy and Peace and Hope. May we know your love and acceptance in a real and tangible way in our lives this Christmas and throughout the New Year. Fill us to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as we trust in You. May the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround our lives with His super-abundance until we radiate with Hope!

I ask all these things with great expectations in Jesus’ powerful and wonderful name. Amen.