First Week of Advent - Hope

People usually associate the word hope with wishful thinking. If we hope something will happen, we have no control over whether or not it will take place. 

But the biblical sense of hope is very different. Hope, in the Bible, exists as a secure assurance, a trust placed in a trustworthy God. God has not failed us in the past, and therefore, if he claims he will do something in the future, we can have a hope that he will fulfill that claim. 

Hope waits and endures. It isn’t flimsy or merely wishful thinking. It can withstand fire, trials, and despair.

Excerpted from Christianity.com For more on the First Week of Advent, read here.