Living Life by Design

A few years ago (ok, more than just a few) there was a moving of the Holy Spirit within the Christian music industry. Artist’s began releasing worship Music CD’s. The songs and music of Michael W. Smith, Matt Redman, and Chris Tomlin took over the airways and churches. The songs seemed to take people by the hand and lead them into the presence of God. At the center of this music, one theme stood out to me…Hope.

The origin of hope is ‘the God of hope’. The reason we can have hope is Jesus. And, the source of hope in us is the Holy Spirit. This hope is not simply wishful thinking. It is rooted in what God has done for us and is doing in us.

God gave us His written word in order to give us hope. ‘For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope’ (Romans 15:4). It is through the Scriptures that we know about Jesus and the hope that is in him…for his return. It can be tomorrow or any time, but that’s the horizon for us as believers. This horizon is our hope, and it’s what makes life meaningful.

The way to keep our hopes up, and to keep our eyes focused on the horizon is to spend time in God’s word…regularly.