Happy New Year! I have taken a break over Christmas and New Year from work – if I’d realised we were actually at the last of our reflections on hope I may have squeezed it in before the end of 2019 😉 Never mind – it’s good to start 2020 reminding ourselves of where our hope lies.

Reflections based on Hebrews 11:1–12; 32–40.

‘Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.’ (v.1)

This is the famous passage about faith, but take a look at the first verse – shown above. Hope is an integral part of our faith as Christians. Indeed Romans 4:18 makes this connection between the faith and hope that one of the characters in our passage had: ‘Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”’

As I said in a previous post, John Piper described hope as ‘faith in the future tense’. And what is so notable about all the people commended in this passage, of which we are told there are so many that not all are named, is that they never entered into the fullness of everything they had been promised during their lifetime. We are told they welcomed it from a distance, so they had a glimpse of it but never actually lived in it. Wow – I’m not sure I would have been so faithful (although I can think of some modern-day heroes close to my heart that inspire me by holding firmly on to their faith even when they don’t see what they are hoping for).

Take a look at verses 32–39 again and look at the huge trials those mentioned in Hebrews 11 had to face: battles, torture, ridicule, flogging, chains, prison, persecution. It makes for sobering reading doesn’t it? Those ‘giants’ of faith really did face severe testing and struggles. Often exercising faith means hanging on to the hope of our future glory in the midst of our own struggles. But we can be reassured that, as we do so, our walk with God is maturing.

Aren’t God’s plans incomprehensible and above our own? Just reflect on what the final verses reveal – that those we read about can only be made perfect with us. It is when we are all together with Him that we can fully enter into the glorious hope made possible through our Saviour. What a mind-blowing truth!

For prayer and reflection: Ask God to fire up your hope afresh as you read about these heroes of faith one more time. Allow their example to motivate you to carry on in your own walk of faith this year.