You can read the verses around this Bible passage from the Internet Bible: - in English, and many other languages
In the Bible, 'hope' is a special word which means 'the confident expectation that God will do what He has promised". Especially, this is about the certain coming again of Jesus, and our confidence that we will be acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Without this hope we would be pulled off track by life's many uncertainties, and tests. The Lord has promised to lead us in safety, even though the devil will tempt us and sometimes we will fall: but the outcome of the believer's relationship with God is assured.
The Scriptures help us as we see how the prophets and apostles were ill treated; yet they persevered because they believed God's promises. The Lord Jesus Christ also suffered but did not shrink back, because He trusted Father God: Christ's dreadful death was fully validated at the resurrection. In the same way our faith will be fully validated when Jesus comes again and we are raised from death with new bodies. Until then, our job is to please our Master, serving others for His sake, and not ourselves, even though we may suffer in the process. Without the Bible narrative, we might give up: but knowing the way in which God vindicates His servants, we can and must press on to the end.
If we rely on our own personal experience alone, we may either live in confidence or despair as we face fresh uncertainties. But at the heart of God's Word are His promises of salvation, forgiveness, protection, guidance, strength and wisdom. We see all of these worked out in the Bible's accounts of men and women of faith. What God promised them, He fulfilled. And so we may have great hope that God will also fulfil His promises for us also, because He is unchanging. That is one of the great reasons to read the Scriptures ... so that we may live each day with confidence in His promises. Let us renew our commitment to reading His Word, for our own sake, the sake of others and of His Kingdom and glory.
Prayer: Faithful God. Thank You for giving us the Scriptures so that we may have hope. Thank You for the examples of men and women of faith who trusted Your promises and whose sacrificial lives were fruitful. I am sorry when I have pleased myself and ignored my responsibility to be Your servant, particularly when others threatened to be hostile. And I am sorry when I have forgotten Your Word and lost hope. Please help me to live, looking to the Day of Christ's return, in such a way that I am willing to trust You whatever may happen along the way. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
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