My favorite game show has always been “The Price is Right”. The music, the sound of “Come on down, you are our next contestant on “The Price is Right”, runs effortlessly through my brain when I think of this TV extravaganza. Surprisingly, it is not the winning or loosing of the contestant that impacts me. It is the great expectations of hearing your name called and the adventure and opportunity that follows.
Each selected contestant runs to contestants’ row, laughing, shouting, flaying their arms in the air, jumping up and down and looking totally beside themselves. The expectation of playing the game creates momentum and joy. Each contestant selected understands they are at the beginning of a journey. Only nine contestants are selected from 325 audience members. Of these nine, only six will make it past contestants’ row and win the right to play the game. Yet, daily almost a thousand people fill the auditorium during the taping of three shows, hoping to hear their name called. There is great expectation in the house!
During this time of uncertainty in the world, we have heard often that we must have hope. I have great love for the term hope. I realize it is one of the three abiding anointings in 1 Corinthians 13:13. I know that it is the anchor of our soul according to Hebrews 6:9-20 NLT, “Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation. For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do. Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance. For example, there was God’s promise to Abraham. Since there was no one greater to swear by, God took an oath in his own name, saying: “I will certainly bless you, and I will multiply your descendants beyond number.” Then Abraham waited patiently, and he received what God had promised. Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding. God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek.” Hope by definition is “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen” based on the promises of God. Expectation by definition is “ a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future. Expectation is the action of hope.
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