Daily Devotional

I grew up in northern California, near the small town of Vina, 18 miles north of Chico.  My father was a farmer, and he moved onto our family farm in December of 1939.  There wasn’t an evangelical church in the area, so my folks and some other families started meeting with the idea of starting a new church.  As the group grew, they started meeting in an old Methodist Church that had closed some years before.  God blessed the small church, and they later bought the building and continued to hold regular services.  My earliest recollections were of going to church every Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday night.  God gave me e privilege of having Christian parents and being a part of a gospel preaching church.  But even with all this positive influence, I did not come to have a personal relationship with Christ until my Junior High/High School years.  I heard the gospel repeatedly but had never placed my faith in Christ alone for my salvation.  Once I came to know the Lord, my life began to change.  I now had a hope and a future because of my faith in Christ.

One of the hymns I remember singing in the early years of my Christian experience was, “The Solid Rock,” written by Edward Mote and William Batchelder Bradbury.  Notice the words of the first verse of the hymn:    

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus Christ, my righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

As I started growing in my Christian life, I began to realize how important the Scriptural truths taught in this hymn are to each of us.  The Christian life is a life of faith and hope.  Romans 1:17 states, “The righteous will live by faith.”  Having become a child of God by faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we are to continue to live by faith.  A word that is often associated with faith is the word “hope.”  The word hope is used often in Scripture.  So what does it mean to live a life of faith and having a certain hope?

The Scriptures define “hope” for us.  It is not the common thought of blind optimism or a “hope-so” feeling.  The Scriptures define the words faith and hope in Hebrews 11:1.  The writer of Hebrews tells us, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”  This faith based on hope is illustrated in the lives of the men and women we read of in Hebrews 11.  Their faith and hope was life changing and practical.  They believed God and placed their hope in His promises.  There are two parts to this definition:  (1) the assurance of things hoped for and (2) the conviction of things not seen.

“The assurance of things hoped for” is a deep confidence that the promises of God will happen just as they are stated in the Scripture.  Some of these promises are the forgiveness of sin, salvation, and an eternal future in heaven.  The objects of our hope are the promises of God, and we live our life by faith with complete confidence that these promises will come true.  Warren Wiersbe defines faith as, “confident obedience to God’s Word in spite of circumstances and consequences.”  We trust God’s Word and we act on it as we live each day regardless of what may happen or what other people may think or do.

The word “conviction” is only used in this passage of Scripture.  It means proof, argument or evidence.  The “evidence or proof” is found in Hebrews 11:3 and centers around God creating this world and the universe.  We are convicted that there is a Master Planner who created all things.  We see His handy work in all of creation as stated in Romans 1:20. His very nature, attributes, and power are clearly seen.  This God who created all things has given us precious promises upon which we base our hope.  This causes us to live by faith believing we will one day receive these promises.

With all this in mind, are you living a life of faith?  Has your hope in God’s promises changed your life?  Has your perspective moved heavenward or is it still focus on life here in this world?  The men and women who lived a life of faith in Hebrews 11, focused their hope on the promises of God and it radically changed them.  May we be men and women in our generation whose lives are changed by placing our hope in God’s promises.
 
Prayer:  Lord, thank you for the salvation You have provided through the death and resurrection of Your Son.  Help my faith to grow deeper, as I place my hope in Your promises.  I want to trust You more each day.  May my focus always be on You.  Amen

New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.