No Hope At All

Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Romans 8:24
"My Hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. "

"Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and certainty of things unseen. " Hebrews 11:1

Often times we can't SEE our healing. We can't know with certainty by what we see with our eyes. Healing and hope are both inward. They are inside of us, in our hearts, in our minds and all HOPE that lasts, is hope that comes from God.
For a hope that fades is no hope at all.
Sure, even the most dutiful of believers can become disheartened from time to time. We can become distracted by the waves swirling around us and the storm that is rising up on all sides. We can become  distracted by the sea of sorrow that can toss us too and fro.
BUT wait....
A hope that is seen is NO hope at all. For who hopes in what he already has? No, instead we wait for it patiently.
SO clearly, our hope is not found in earthly blessing. For many of us have received many an earthly blessing.
A friend who recently sold her home, was her hope of her earthly existence dependent on that sale? No. She was thrilled and felt blessed when it did sell, but that is not where her hope lay. My other friend, received good news regarding her health. Was that where her hopes and ability to carry on lay? No. Was the news of her health amazing? Yes, and nothing short of it, but that was not her ultimate hope. God shows us His kindness and blesses us with good things, *and trials* (for trials bring us closer to Him and in doing so are blessings) but our hope does not rest in what He gives us on this earth.
My hope is found IN NOTHING LESS than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Meaning this: What HE did for me on the cross of calvary is the where my hope began. The day He saved the world of sin  is the day my hope was born. The day He breathed His last...is the day my redemption took flight. I have not, and can not rest in a single "hope" this world has to offer. This world is filled with good things, it's true...but this world and the goodness it sells me, cannot offer what the HOPE of Jesus Christ offers me.
SO when all the world fades away, my earthly hopes all dashed to bits, I can still have hope. Many would say, "impossible" and many others would nod, knowing through known experience that when all else fades away, the beauty of Christ and His hope shines stronger than the Bethlehem star. Jesus, the hope of the nations. The truth in each circumstances. You are the hope of heavens light on earth.
The moment that heaven opened and cracked the sky of sin and death, when dead Jesus' lungs refilled with air and He sat up in His tomb, Hell and death, and the grave, lost it's power. Hope rang out the truest song a soul has ever heard. And in the same way, "Abraham believed against all odds and so became the Father of many nations..." God's plan for each of us is sung over us in an hallelujah   chorus that rings out over all the earth as we place out trust in "hope not seen."  Why? Because HOPE does not disappoint when it is hope rightly placed. Hope placed on Jesus Christ and the redemptive work He did on the cross is a hope that will last, and last throughout all generations, until the day He comes back to get us. (which He will in a blink of an eye and all this world will pass before our eyes.)  Take any person, give them all they want, all they dreamed and hoped for, and then let them die with out Christ. Their death bed will NOT be a hopeful place. But take a battered and beaten disciple, who falls asleep as he is being stoned for his faith and he will die as Steven did in Acts, with the "face of an angel." The light of heaven cast upon his face. This is not the face of man who is hopeless! This is the face of a man who knows his hope is eternal. Which would you rather have? A hope that dies with you? Or a hope that lives on into eternity. For me the answer is clear.
My hope is heaven. My reward is Christ. My joy is wrapped up in Him, and all that He did for me, for you cannot, and will not be able to take that hope from me. ( I say to the enemy) for my hope is bound up in the resurrection of my Lord Jesus Christ. And so Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread and when He Had broke it HE said, "this is my body which is broken for you." AND in the same way, HE took the cup saying, this my blood. AND in doing so, each time you take the bread and take the cup you proclaim the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. His death is my hope. And so in His death He set generation upon generation free from death.
Funny isn't it? His death, is my hope? For Hope that is seen in no hope at all. I rest my case, my life and my hope in what HE already accomplished for me. There is nothing HE could give me, or hand me that would be better than what He already did for me on the cross.