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“Our hope and expectation, / O Jesus, now appear; / Arise, O Sun so longed for, / O’er this benighted sphere. / With hearts and hands uplifted, / We plead, O Lord, to see / The day of earth’s redemption / That sets Your people free!”
Are hopes and expectations the same? We may hope for something, but do we always expect that hope to be fulfilled? During a drought we may seriously hope and pray for rain, but during those hot, dry days we will likely leave our umbrellas at home. We hope for rain, but do not really expect it. Likewise, we might hope for a sunny day after endless stormy weather, but do we seriously expect the sun and make plans for a picnic?
More seriously, when a friend or family member is ill, we hope and pray for healing. We know that our mighty God can heal, but do we in faith hold in our hearts the actual expectation of healing? Yet we place ourselves and our loved ones in God’s hands. The healing we seek will be granted, either now in this life or in eternity, as God answers our prayers and fulfills our hopes according to His gracious will. Hope and expectation meet in the promises of God. His Word and His promises are sure and certain. As God says of the Word that He speaks, “It shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11b).
In ancient times, the people of God hoped for the coming of the Messiah to deliver them. They expected His arrival because they trusted God to keep His promise. When the time was right, God sent His Son into the world, fulfilling the hopes and expectations of the people. Jesus suffered, died, and rose so that our sins are forgiven and we have, by faith in our Lord, the hope and the expectation of eternal life. But where do we find such certainty? We have Jesus’ Word on it: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36a). We have the hope and expectation of His presence in His body and blood in the Sacrament. We have His Word on that, too: “This is My body … this is My blood of the covenant” (Matthew 26:26b, 28a). We have the hope and expectation of His constant presence in our lives because He promised to be with us always. We have the hope and expectation that Jesus will return, as He promised. In our hymn we pray that the Sun—the Son of God—would arise over the “benighted sphere” of this world. Along with us, all of creation hopes and longs for the day of redemption when Jesus returns. Jesus Himself is “our hope and expectation,” and He is coming soon to set us free.
WE PRAY: Jesus, Your people long for Your return. Come and set us free. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Carol Geisler. It is based on the hymn, “Rejoice, Rejoice, Believers” which is number 515 in the Lutheran Service Book.
Reflection Questions:
- Can our reliance on God be strengthened even when a prayer for a hoped-for result doesn’t work out?
- What do you think it means when God says His Word will not return to Him empty?
- How are you encouraged in the hope and expectation you have in Jesus even when things are going badly?
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