HelpFinder Bible - Flipbook - Page 180
page A178
Honesty & Integrity continued
• 1 T I MOT H Y 1 :1 9 | Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some
people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been
shipwrecked.
We maintain integrity by keeping our conscience clear before God and others.
PROMISE FROM GOD
• PR O V E R B S 1 2 :1 9 | Truthful words stand the test of time, but lies are soon exposed.
Hope See also Faith; Future; Heaven/Eternal Life; Salvation
What we hope for may be small or great, consequential or inconsequential. Hope may be
as insignificant as a trivial dream for a birthday gift. Or it may be a forever kind of hope.
For a prisoner on death row, a pardon offers hope of freedom. For the spiritual prisoner
on death row because of the consequences of sin, God offers ultimate hope by forgiving our sins so that we can be with him forever. When life seems impossible, God brings
eternal hope. Hope is essential to our perseverance, our getting through the tough times.
Without hope we give up. Hope requires one thing, though—a trust in the One who
brings real hope. Real hope is not wishful thinking about what isn’t, but a prayerful claim
for who God is and what he will do for us.
H
What is my hope? Where does hope come from?
HelpFinder
• PSA L M 3 9 :7 | And so, Lord, where do I put my hope? My only hope is in you.
• PSA L M 7 1 :5 | O Lord, you alone are my hope. I’ve trusted you, O Lord, from childhood.
The Lord himself is the source of greatest hope. Only when you trust him with your future
can real hope begin to grow in you, because he created you with a great future in mind,
both on this earth and for all eternity.
• 1 P E T E R 1 :2 1 | Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your
faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.
The resurrection, the greatest event in history, is the foundation of hope. It should impact
how you live each day.
• 1 P E T E R 1 :3 -6 | It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised
Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless
inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the
reach of change and decay. . . . There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure
many trials for a little while.
Just as focusing on a fixed point in the distance helps you travel in a straighter line, Jesus’
followers fix their eyes on the eternal horizon where they will live with him forever with no
pain or sorrow or suffering. As you move straight toward your eternal goal, your hope for
eternity makes you better able to endure the discomforts of daily life.
How does hope help me live better today?
• PH I L I P P I A NS 3 :1 3 -1 4 | I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward
to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize
for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
• T I T U S 2 :1 2 -1 3 | We should live in this evil world with wisdom, righteousness, and devotion to God, while we look forward with hope to that wonderful day when the glory of our
great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will be revealed. (See note on page 1103.)
Hope focuses on your future, especially your eternal future. It gives you the motivation and
energy to press on in your daily tasks.
• 1 J O H N 3 :3 | And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he
is pure.
Hope is the motivating factor to help you resist temptation and keep your life pure before God.