Verse By Verse Devotional On 2 Corinthians By Pastor Jack #16

On What Have We Set Our Hope?

1:10 "[God,] who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope."

On what or whom have we set our hope? Paul had firmly set his hope on God. He had given up on all other hopes. In order to come to Christ he had to abandon all the other securities in his life. He had counted them as rubbish and placed his hope in Christ alone. But what about us? Can we honestly say that our hope is set on God?

In the New Testament, hope refers to the confidence we have that at the end Christ will come and set all things right, wiping away every tear and bringing us to resurrected glory. The person who has this confidence lives everyday differently. He does not live for today but for THAT day. He does not need a comfortable life now, he is looking forward to resting in the strong and tender arms of his Savior. He does not need to escape the world’s pain, he knows that his sufferings are winning for him an eternal weight of glory far beyond all our troubles here. He does not look for his joy in earthly things, he sets his mind on things above, where Christ is. He never loses hope because he knows that one day Christ will be revealed from heaven, and everything that has been taken away will be restored. He knows his day of honor and glory is coming, so he is content to walk in humility and lowliness here on the earth.

"...we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God..." (1Tim.4:10)

So, have we set our hope on God? Is our mind set on the things above or on the things that are on earth (Col.3:2)?

"For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." (Titus 2:11-14)

My dear Father, I want to be a man whose hope is fixed upon Christ alone. I want to live for only one purpose; I want to strive for only one goal. I want Jesus Christ to be my all-in-all. And yet I feel the enticement of this world: its treasures, its worries, its securities. Thank You that You have set me free from this present evil age. By the power of the Holy Spirit help me not to submit to its pressures or its deceptive allure. Help me keep my eyes set on the One who has gone before me into the heavenly places to prepare a place of glory for me.