What is the greatest word in the English language? Love? That’s probably what most people would say. Songs tell of it (“Love Makes the World Go Around”), books are full of it (romance novels are top sellers), wars have been fought over it and babies testify to its popularity. But I beg to differ. I think the greatest word in the English language is hope.
It’s one thing to know that God loves us. He could have just told us “I love you” and left it at that. But because He demonstrated that love, we can now have hope.
Romans 5:8 states that “God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” The scripture also tells us that Jesus is the “blessed Hope”, not just because He died for our sins but, because He was supernaturally raised back to life, to prove that His sacrificial death was accepted as payment for our sins.
As a result of God’s love shown to us in Christ, we don’t just hope that all things in our lives will work out for some good purpose (Rom8:28) but we have hope of an eternal future when our physical lives end. Jesus is called that “blessed Hope” because he is the bridge from earth to heaven.
The Bible speaks of people who have no hope because they have no relationship with God. There is a bumper sticker that simplifies it:
NO GOD, NO PEACE.
KNOW GOD, KNOW PEACE.
We can only know peace though the Peacemaker, Jesus Christ, as we turn our lives over to Him. He opens his arms and says “Come unto me and I will give you rest”. That rest means peace for your heart here on earth and rest for your soul throughout eternity.
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