The Bible tells us to meditate on God and the hope found in His Word so that we can rest in the knowledge of who He is and His promises to us. Hope is a fundamental part of the Christian faith and a gift that God gives us through His Holy Spirit.
Why do Christians meditate on hope? Christians meditate on hope because it reminds them that it is well with their soul and that Jesus is always with them, renewing and encouraging them. Christians are able to put their hope in Jesus because they trust in who God is and believe that He will fulfill His promises.
Here are 5 areas I found that we can meditate on hope:
Hope in Hard Times
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5 ESV
In this life, we can not avoid suffering or hard times, but thanks be to God because He is our hope and strengthens us in our struggles.
If our world were perfect, hope would not be necessary, we would not need to have hope in anything. However, now that we have hindrances in between us and God, we need something to bridge the gap, and that something is Jesus.
When we meditate on our hope in Jesus, it is not wishful thinking, it is the assurance in the sacrifice he made for us and believing that He came to give us life abundantly.
God has promised that He will restore us and save us to eternal life with Him if we believe in His Son, but we still live in a broken, hurting world. Our hope encourages us during this time of waiting patiently for the Lord and is not something to be ashamed of because we are sure of who God is. If God’s love has transformed us, we can meditate on the hope He promises us for abundant life now, even in the hard times.
Because this hope comes from the Holy Spirit, we can endure hard times through His strength and look forward to being with Him in perfection forever. We are called to hope in this promise and rejoice in how God has already fulfilled previous promises to us despite the difficult times.
Hope for the Future
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV
Though this verse is one of the most popular verses out there because of its comforting tone, the context around it is often forgotten. Yes, it is meant to encourage us and show us God’s beautiful and kind character, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that everything will go our way.
During the time the prophet, Jeremiah was writing this, the Israelites were in captivity and a false prophet was spreading the rumor that Israel would be free from their captors in two years. God did not have these intentions, and in fact did not free the Israelites until 70 years later, which would’ve crushed the Israelites who wanted to go home.
Just before this verse, God tells the Israelites to stay put, to dig down deep and plant the roots of their lives there in Babylon, and to pray that the city would prosper because if it did, they would too.
Of course, God’s people did not want to hear this, and sometimes even we think we can play the role of God in our lives. True hope that is worthwhile is not placed in ourselves but in Jesus.
Still, we see our lives and worry about our future, we try to change it and force God to give us exactly what we want. Sure, Jeremiah 29:11 would be awesome if God was promising to bring them back to the promised land right then and there, but the greater miracle is that He provided for them, loved them, and gave them a bright future even in enemy territory.
Our God is not only big enough and powerful enough to satisfy us in the good times of life, but also in the hard times when our future is looking bleak.
Now, this won’t mean that God always calls us to stay where we are, but we can trust in Him because of His promise to give us a future and a hope.
Hope for Healing
But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31 ESV
When we are weak, weary, sick, or broken, our hope is still in the Lord, because we know that one day He will make us all new. We can rest knowing that He can and will renew our strength and heal us from whatever is holding us down.
Whether it’s our spiritual, physical, or mental health that is being attacked, we can trust God and His promises to us. We will be completely healed once we reach heaven and God may heal us even now, but whatever happens, it is still well with our souls because we know our hope in Jesus gives us eternal life in His healing presence.
Hope for Others
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
Romans 8:26 NIV
As Christians, our deepest hope is that others will share in our joy and come to know Jesus and be saved by Him through faith. Sometimes it can get discouraging and frustrating praying for these loved ones and seeming to see no change in their lives.
When we are weak and wordless for others, we can meditate on our hope in God and His Holy Spirit, knowing that He is praying for these people in deep intercession. What a beautiful and comforting picture of who God is and how the Holy Spirit never gives up on us and others.
Hope in Jesus
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
1 Peter 1:3 ESV
Since hope is waiting on the promises of God and believing that He will fulfill them, we can already praise Him for the amazing things He’s done for us, the best of these being the sacrifice of His only son, Jesus Christ.
Our hope is born from the power of His resurrection. He has saved us, both from a life of sin and for an eternity of worshipping Him and being with Him. Because He has proven that this hope is true by transforming our lives as Christians, we can believe Him when He says He’s coming back again.
There is no better thing to look forward to and to put our hope in than that. There is nobody who has been as good to us as God has. He is our living hope. This living hope means that we don’t have to wait until we die to experience His presence, but we can choose to meditate on Him and in this hope right now. We are secure in Him and loved by Him forever.
If you are trying to grow your hope in Jesus, meditate on His Word and trust that He will change the way you view your life with Him and others. Hoping in Jesus is waiting patiently for His return and resting in the fact that He will fulfill all of His promises and love us through it all.