1231) Christmas for children is a magical time. I remember when I was small, how hard it was to go to sleep on Christmas Eve because of what I hoped was there for me under the decorated tree.

These remembrances caused me to think of the words Paul said of the believers in 1 Thessalonians 1:3 that they endured difficulties because of their hope. There are two words in this part of the verse that are important to look into. The first is endurance. The Greek word for this is hupomoné, which means to stand firm, to be unmoving in the currents of life. The second word to note, hope, is elpis, which means you have a knowledge that something will happen. Thinking of these two words together is the idea that you can stand firm on what you believe because you know it will happen.

This word for hope isn’t something that you wish for as a child. I hope I will get a bike for Christmas. Instead it’s, I can be excited at Christmas because I hope (know) there will be something under the tree for me.

Hope is vital in our faith and must be reviewed and renewed within ourselves regularly. It is this hope that enables us to endure all the difficulties that life in this world brings to us.

There is hope because there is a God who loves and understands us. There is hope that we don’t have to earn our salvation; God gives it because of his love. There is hope that all wrongs will be made right one day. The list can go on and on.

What type of hope do you have?