I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know Him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance among the saints. (Ephesians 1:17-18)
God calls us to many things: to be His special people, into fellowship with Christ and His people, to believe the good news of salvation through Christ (see 1 Cor. 1:2, 9, 22-24). We are called to peace in our relationships (1 Cor. 7:15), to belong to Christ (Rom. 1:5-7), and to unexpected freedom (Gal. 5:13). In Ephesians, Paul prays for another dimension of God’s calling: that “you may know what is the hope to which He has called you” (Eph.1:18). The Greek reads more literally, “that you may know what is the hope of His calling.” God’s calling is primarily God summoning us into relationship with God through Jesus Christ. God invites us to be His special people, live in His love and walk in the good works He has designed for us (Eph. 2:10). Paul says, earlier in Ephesians, that God’s mission for the cosmos will be culminated in the future when God “gather[s] up all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph. 1:10). The universe, shattered by sin, will be put back together through Christ. God’s peace, permeated by righteousness, justice, and blessing, will fill the whole creation. So, when God calls us through the Gospel, we are called to a compelling vision of the future. We are called to hope. In today’s culture, hope is wishing for something, longing, even anticipating that we might get it. Hope sounds like, “Oh, I hope the Lakers will win the championship. Oh, I hope I get that promotion. Oh, I hope the economy will recover.” You can even hope for things that are quite unlikely: “Oh, I hope we won’t have any fires in California this year.” Hope is longing, wishing, and desiring, whether what you hope for will happen or not. Biblical hope is different. Far beyond wishful thinking, it is deep confidence. It is a conviction about the future. Christian hope is knowing that what God has begun in Christ, God will complete when the time is just right. We are called, not just to any old hope, but to confident hope. This kind of hope isn’t something we conjure up through our own efforts. It is something to which we are called, given to us as a gift of God’s Spirit. Paul did not tell the Ephesians to be more hopeful. Rather, he prayed that God would help them to know of the hope of His calling. Hope comes from God’s work in us through the Spirit. When we embrace the hope of the Gospel, not only do we look forward to God’s future, but also we are empowered to live boldly and courageously every day. Lord, may the confident hope of Your calling help me to live fully and fruitfully today. Comments are closed.
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