Hope is built into this Christmas season of gift-giving. We take on the role of Santa when we ask our family members, “What do you want for Christmas?” It’s a common question. We are looking for answers for what we might give to others.
Why do we need to ask? Because we don’t know. We need some ideas. It will make our shopping so much easier. Maybe your spouse wants you to read his/her mind, but good luck with that. You’ve been wrong so many times before! Just tell me exactly what you want, so I can go out and buy it (for goodness sake!). That way, I know you will get what you want and will not be disappointed—in me or the gift. This is compounded by the fact that most of us don’t really know what we want or need.
But everyone hopes they might receive something. There may be some extravagant gift that you know you most likely won’t receive, but still, hope that you might. There is uncertainty in our Christmas hopes.
But what if you already have it? If you already have a blue suede jacket, would you hope for a blue suede jacket for Christmas? Of course not. Why would you hope for something you already have?
The nature of biblical hope is that you already do have it. Romans 5:5, “and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
There is an “already, but not yet” nature of our hope. We already possess it, but one day we will possess it fully.
One day hope will be no more. Because hope is confidently looking forward to what God has promised. When God fulfills that promise, our hope is fulfilled. When Messiah comes again or takes us to our ultimate home, all that we look forward to, all we are promised now, will be brought to pass, and we will possess that or which we now hope.
The Apostle Paul said, “our hope does not disappoint.” Note well the present tense. The hope we have for the future does not disappoint us in the present, at his very time. This is the nature of biblical hope. Our hope of what is promised is a certainty, it is assured by His word, and we confidently await and expect that all He has promised will be fulfilled.
Our Christmas gift wish list is not like that. There is the uncertainty that I will receive a new Lexus. Actually, I stand corrected; there is the certainty that I won’t! But you get the idea, wishful thinking and biblical hope are in two different categories. One is uncertain, and the other is unquestionably certain.
You now possess by faith all the God-given promises of the future. Therefore our hope does not disappoint. When the ultimate Christmas Day comes, you will receive all you ever hoped for. But realize now, beloved, the only thing you need, the ultimate desire of your life, you already have. It is Him. Therefore, our Christmas hope does not, nor will it ever disappoint.