Living with Hope and Doing Something about It

In Sioux Falls Young Life, the girls are studying Ephesians in Bible study. I love Ephesians. It's  a beautiful book. I think it tends to be a neglected gem. Ephesians has so many wonderful reminders for us.

This week, we've been reading Ephesians 2, and verses 11 through 13 say this

Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.

I honestly believe I haven't ever really paid any attention to those last few sentences in the past. But as I stared at them a few days ago, I remembered what it was like to live in this world without hope. I remember feeling like life would never be okay. 

But I'm not there anymore. Now I'm truly united with Christ. He brought me into the dwelling place of the Father. He paid the price to set me free. He gave me hope. 

I love the idea of hope. But our culture makes us think hope is something it isn't. We hear and say things like, "I hope you have a great day!" or "I hope that it goes well." We equate hope with wishing, and I do it so often. 

Yet, when the Bible uses the word hope, it means more of a confident expectation. 

We lived in this world without God and without a confident expectation in anything. Stink. 

But then there's Jesus. And he gave us himself to confidently hope in and expect more from. In Ephesians 1:18, Paul says, "I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he has called -- his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance." He gave us himself to hope in! He gave us himself so that we can be near to God! And we can be confident in this expectation!

I love that I now live in this world with God and with hope. I am so blessed.

While reading Ephesians, I wasn't overwhelmed with joy when I read "You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have been united with Christ Jesus." Instead, I was reminded of the people who still live in this world without God and without hope. Stink. That is one crappy place to be.

After that realization, I felt like God was asking me, "So what are you going to do about it?"

I'm going to go and tell people about the hope I have - both here in the U.S. and over there in Eastern Europe. I'm going to let people know they can live with hope and confidently expect Jesus to change their lives.

So friends, what are you going to do about it?