"Hope" Series Day 6: What makes our hope last?
by Jamie Steach
Read Titus 2:11-16
What is the nature of hope in this passage? What is our expectation? What is the basis of this hope?
What are we hoping to receive/that we have received? What is the evidence that we have received it?
What is our instructor in this passage? What does it teach us? How does this instruction make our hope last? How does it help us wait for our hope?
Read 2 Corinthians 4:7-18
How do suffering, hardship, and persecution confirm God’s power in our lives? Why do we need to always carry the death of Jesus with us? How does this relate to hope (remember Romans 5)?
What is the reason that we persevere? Where is our faith, and what are we expecting when we endure under hardship? Why are we able to endure without losing heart? How does all of this come back to building our hope into a hope that lasts?
What is the renewal we are receiving day by day? Why is it so important to fix our eyes on what is unseen instead of what we can see before us and around us? How is suffering described in verse 17? In what ways does verse 17 describe hope, and the outlook we take when we have hope that lasts?
Read Romans 8:18-25
What view of suffering is continued in this passage? Does the suffering seem necessary? What does it mean for all of creation to be “released from its bondage to decay”? How does our personal experience seem to mirror creation in this passage?
What is the nature of hope in this passage? What things should we be waiting in eager expectation of, according to this passage? What is the underlying message in these things (ie, what do they have in common)? What is it that we are really meant to be hoping for?
Why is waiting such a major part of hope? How do we build lasting hope while we wait? How does our perspective affect whether or not our hope will last? Do you think that eagerness is a characteristic of lasting hope? Why?
Wrap up:
What things create the environment in our lives that produce lasting hope? How do we choose hope even under hardship? How important is the role of grace? Can we be people with lasting hope if we aren’t taught by grace, and we don’t endure suffering?
About this series
Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. (Proverbs 13:12)
Yachal = hope: to wait, expect; waiting with expectation (OT)
Elpizō = hope: to wait with joy and full confidence, to trust in (NT)
Elpis = hope: expectation of good; the thing hoped for (NT)
Hope is a common topic in the Bible, and while many references speak of placing hope in God, we have a few other examples, as well. But what do all of these various references have in common?
Acts 16:19 - hope of making money=expectation of making money
Luke 24:21 - expectation that Jesus was going to redeem Israel (like David)
Jeremiah 23:16 - false expectations
These 3 examples capture the specific nature of hope that echoes through the Bible: to have hope is to have expectation, and usually it involves waiting on that expectation. So what exactly does expectation have to do with God? As it turns out, a lot.