Thrill of Hope

An Invitation to Rediscover the Promises of Advent

Hope can feel hard to hold onto these days. Life wears us down, and the holidays tend to highlight the places we feel it the most. The expectations, the pressure, the comparisons, the empty chairs at the table. It can all make hope feel more like wishful thinking than a promise from God. But Advent isn’t about pretending we’re strong or trying to put on that happy mask for our friends and family. If that's all we think Christmas is, we're doing it wrong. Because Christmas should be a time where we remember that our Savior stepped into a weary world just like ours. There was not much hope before that night. But the angels showed up with good tidings of great joy for all people. Jesus was born. And hope arrived.

Jesus didn’t enter a world at peace but one marked by struggle, political tension, spiritual confusion, and everyday hardships. And it’s into that kind of world, one that feels a lot like ours, that hope arrived in the form of a child. Not with spectacle or power, but with a baby's cry. God sent his son because we needed hope. And God always keeps his promises.

That same steady hope is what Paul offers the church in 2 Thessalonians. He writes to believers who were faithful but tired, committed but discouraged, growing but pressured on every side. They needed to be reminded that God had not forgotten them. They needed to be anchored again to the truth that their hope wasn’t built on how well they were holding up or how much they felt like Christians. Their hope was built on the God who keeps His promises.

“The Thrill of Hope” is our invitation to rediscover that same promise-keeping God. A God who came for us in Bethlehem. A God who is with us right now. A God who will come again. Things may not always be easy, but they need not be without hope. This holiday season, thrill in the hope you've been craving, because Jesus is still our present and active hope Jesus for today and for all the days to come.