Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Ephesians 1:18 . . . what is the hope of His calling . . .
WITH EYES WIDE OPEN: OUR ONE TRUE END
Answer the question. What is the hope of our calling? Having been called by the "Father of Glory," -- probably a direct reference to the One who "dwelt between the Cherubim," -- having been chosen by Him, having received the Holy Spirit, having been cleansed by His blood, what do you hope for? What gift would you ask of the Holy Spirit? Power? Glory? Riches? Miracles? A perfect family? A spouse? Some of these things are not bad to want but if we will not receive Christ without them, they have then become the hope of our calling, our reason for being a Christian. If we are put off from our faith in Christ because that faith has not delivered the things we expect it to, have we not substituted the hopes of this life for the hope in Christ to which we were called?
How often are Christians not deceived and pushed into false doctrine for exactly this reason that their Christianity has seemingly not brought into their life the things they thought it would bring. We are a society that is built from the youngest ages on fairy tales. The idea that if we do good we will receive our heart's desire is burnt into our behavior from little on. If we treat God like a fairy godmother what will we do when our life becomes distressing and our dreams disappear?
But if we instead recognize with Paul the true hope to which we are called, the true reality of that which waits for us, what in this life could ever possibly derail us from our single-minded adherence to that goal for which we strive? One man described humans as having the attention span of "hummingbirds on crack cocaine." We want everything now and our patience usually reaches as far as we can be distracted by some other desire. But whenever we find ourselves drifting, when we feel lost, when we wonder about the gloom that surrounds us, Paul calls us to answer this question: What is the hope of your calling? What is your goal and what is the thing you are waiting for?
"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18).
