The Gift of Hope

Galatians 5:22-23

Verse 22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

    The much anticipated season of Advent is here and we will be spending each week with the theme of that week’s candle.  We will look at how each is a gift from God and the various ways we can gift them to others.

    Candle number one stands for hope.  Hope is a word we tend to throw around in various situations and with varying levels of meaning.  We use it to say that we hope someone has a nice birthday and for hoping the traffic isn’t too heavy when we are running late.  Or we may be hoping to make it through the day or maybe hope our paycheck lasts from one payday to the next.  These forms of hope miss the depth of the hope of Advent.

    The Fruit of the Spirit lists 3 of the 4 weekly candles of the Advent ring, hope is the only one missing.  Though it isn’t mentioned by name there are two things on the list in the verse above which speak to the kind of hope we should have.

    The word forbearance is often translated as patience and while they kind of mean the same thing forbearance takes it a little bit deeper.  This is a Fruit of the Spirit and so only He can produce this kind of forbearance.  That being said, the hope we are talking about this week is the kind of hope that is a knowing hope.  A hope that isn’t about guessing you know something will happen, but knowing it will happen in His time and way.

The other word from the list is faithfulness.  If we are hoping in something that hasn’t happened yet we need to be faithful in the wait.  The hope of Christmas is about faithful forbearance.  Just as the Israelites had hope that a messiah was coming, we have the hope of His coming again.  A hope that is patient and faithful until it becomes a reality.

Making It Personal

    When have you hoped for something?  Was it a hope for you or someone else?  How does your hope shape your life?

Making It Personal Kids

    How would you describe how hope plays a part in your life?  Do you have hope in Jesus?  How can you share that hope with others?

Closing Prayer

    Father, we praise You for this anticipating hope.  Help us see the hope in its rightful definition and plant in us this amazing hope.  In Jesus’ name, amen.