For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6
As the New Year dawns, 2016 will be ushered in with many hoping for a better year than the one just ended. Many will even resolve to change their personal circumstances so that their hope or wish for a better year will come true. There is nothing inherently wrong in resolving to better oneself in this life - but it may never happen! The reality is any resolution; wish, dream, or determination a person might have outside of Jesus Christ, may never come to fruition. That’s the unpredictable reality of the short lives we live.
So what about the believer? Is there anything in our lives that we can hope in that has absolute certainty of its fruition? There certainly is! We have Jesus Christ the Lord who is our hope and the source of our hope. This means our hope can be without doubt. This is because; hope in Christ “does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5). In other words, God has promised, those who have their hope firmly fixed on Jesus Christ will never be disappointed, no matter what the year/s ahead have in store for us. Thomas brooks the puritan once said; “Hope can see heaven through the thickest clouds.”
So for 2016 let us resolve to live in hope of Christ who has promised to bring to fruition that work of grace He predetermined before the foundation the world and begun in us through faith, at our conversion. Why should this be our resolve?
R. C Sproul puts it exactly right: “Hope is called the anchor of the soul (Hebrews 6:19), because it gives stability to the Christian life. But hope is not simply a “wish” (I wish that such-and-such would take place); rather, it is that which latches on to the certainty of the promises of the future that God has made.” [Grace Quotes]
May we all be resolute in knowing the hope of our calling in Christ and be filled with the knowledge of His will for 2016 and beyond.