Revealing Me: Our Hope is Built on Nothing Less

Do you ever see or hear something and it feels like you've never seen or heard it before... although you've probably witnessed it a million times?? I get that feeling a lot! It is a great thing, especially when it comes from wisdom.

These lyrics have been replaying in my head the past couple days:

"My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus' blood and righteousness."

I've sang this song many times and it's a nice tune but I've never realised the words before. Let's take a look at the word hope:

The Bible doesn't use this word in a wishful way. Example: I hope I can win the lottery! Instead it uses it in a more confident way. The Biblical definition of Hope is "confident expectation".1

The Bible doesn't take this word lightly, and neither should we. It seems easier to put our hope, our dreams, our everything into anything but God.

This topic has greatly been inspired by Mark Driscoll's podcast: Trial, temptation from Sin.2 (he hits the nail on the head here for me)

Our faith & our hope should be in God, can you say it is? Can I? Mark asks, how is your hope, on a scale of 1 - 10 how do you rate your level of hope? _______

If we put our hope into anything but Jesus, we are going to be let down. No question! If you can't see this already then please take the time to stop and reevaluate your life as I am. May God reveal all our errors to us and give us the strength and conviction to change our ways.

"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."" 1 Peter 1: 13-16

Why Jesus deserves our Hope: If you believe in God, if you believe that Jesus died for your sins, then your hope should be that you will one day join Him in the kingdom of Heaven. Where do you want to go? If the answer is Heaven, then you need to direct your entire life towards that. If all you can think of is.. I want a big house and a big family and lots of money... then you will direct your life accordingly. Are you looking at the bigger picture?

"Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and your hope is in God." 1 Peter 1: 21

How can you tell that your hope is not in Jesus: Mark Driscoll puts this in a very eye-opening way in his podcast. He asks:

- "When your boyfriend dumps you, is hope gone? Well then he was the source of your hope."
- "You lose your job, you lose your joy, then the job was the source of your hope."
- "If an object other then God is the source of our hope, then when it dies, our hope dies. Jesus is a living God so our hope needs to be in Him."
- "As soon as you lose hope, you start dying."

If you do not have hope, then you are depressed. You stop trying, stop caring, stop learning, stop living.

I have put my hope in many things:

- Friendships: "As long as I have ___ everything will be great. They are someone I can turn to no matter what, they'll help me get through the trials of life."

- Boyfriends/Spouse: "I'm so lucky to have someone that will love me forever and will be my rock, my cornerstone. Without him I would be nothing."

- Beauty: "As long as I am beautiful in the worlds eyes, as long as I please others with my looks I will be excepted." "I won't ever be happy until I lose weight."

- School: "If I go to school and get a higher education, I will be set for life, I will be on top of the world!"

- Money: "As long as I have enough money everything will be fine, that's all I need to be happy!"

- Food: "___ tastes so good and it makes me feel so satisfied even though I know I'm going to regret this later, I can't help myself!" or "I have to have my coffee everyday, are you crazy!?"

- Alcohol: "Today was a bad day, but I'll just have some wine and everything will be better." or "I am not a very interesting person, but when I drink everyone loves me!"

- Babies: "Once I have a baby my life will be complete, we'll be all be happy as a family, and that is all that matters in life!"


What do you put your hope in? Travel, Missions, Fame, Sex, Sports, Food.. what? It could be anything.

I have put my hope in these things, and they have all let me down. When they do you feel broken, not whole. You feel depressed, hopeless, and not worthy.

It is good to dream. I'm not saying it isn't good to have some of the things about, but you need to draw the line between God and the world. Where is your hope?


"My hope is built on nothing less, then Jesus' blood and righteousness".

1 http://www.gotquestions.org/hope-Bible.html para 1

2 http://www.marshillchurch.org/media/trial/temptation-from-sin