Station #8

Hope For a Better Future

“If we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” (Romans 8:25)

 

Hope is the happy anticipation of something good coming our way. Hope is birthed through our faith in Christ and it is the fuel we need to get up each morning and try to build a life that pleases God.

 

The gift of Easter (and particularly the resurrection of Jesus Christ) is designed by the Father to infuse hope in us. In Christ, physical death will not get the last word. As we ponder the empty tomb, we understand that Jesus beat sin, death, and condemnation for us. So His resurrection is the precursor to our future resurrection.

 

“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’ ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:51-56)

 

PRAYER/PRAISE TIME: So before proceeding to the Lord’s Communion Table at the next prayer station, praise God for the settled fact that nothing can separate you from His love… not even physical death! Your future resurrection into His eternal presence is as certain as Jesus’ resurrection from death that first Easter morning!

 

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13