Overview

1. Your Father wants you to always have hope
2. Rest in your Father’s love this year
3. Keep coming to and asking of Him
4. He has sworn to surely bless you
5. Let hope anchor your soul

Your Father wants you to always have hope

Happy New Year! As you step into a fresh new year, your Father in heaven wants you to know that He loves you and that He desires to provide for and protect you. And as you walk the days ahead with Him, He wants you to always have hope that what He has promised you in His Word, He will bring to pass.

The world often cautions us about having hope. We are told not to raise our expectations too high, in case we end up disappointed. Over time, this way of thinking can begin to shape how we see our future and leave us feeling fearful, discouraged, or even weary.

But Scripture speaks of a very different kind of hope. Romans 5:5 tells us,

My friend, the hope spoken of here is not an “I hope so” kind of hope. It is not uncertain or tentative. The Greek word for “hope” here is elpis, which refers to a confident, certain expectation of good. This hope is rooted in who God is and what He has promised, not in how our circumstances appear to be.

When our hope is placed in circumstances, outcomes, or people, we’re bound to be disappointed. But when our hope rests in God, it is secure. This is because His love for us is unconditional, His faithfulness is unchanging, and His promises are unfailing.

Rest in your Father’s love this year

Our Father desires for us to set our year in His will and purpose, and not to insist on forging our own way in life. This is because even with our best thoughts, ideas, and efforts, we cannot bring ourselves to a place where our needs are fully met and our lives truly fulfilled. But He can.

This year, the best thing we can do for ourselves is to allow ourselves to be led by our Father, trusting Him to guide us into all that He has already prepared for us. Matthew 7:11 says,

This is the heart of our Father! He delights in giving good things to us, His children.

Our Lord Jesus paints this so beautifully when He tells us to look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They do not toil or spin, and yet our heavenly Father clothes them. These lilies are small and fragile, easily stepped on, yet they survive harsh winters and cold nights. Who takes care of them?

Friend, if our Father clothes even the lilies of the field, how much more will He care for you, who are of far greater value? This year, may we grow like the lilies, neither by toiling nor by spinning, but by living under the sunshine of our Father’s love.

Keep coming to and asking of Him

Now that we’re clear that our Father’s heart is to bless us, what about the times when we don’t or haven’t yet seen our breakthroughs?

Friend, our heavenly Father doesn’t want us to pray once and then stop or walk away discouraged. Instead, He invites us to keep coming to Him, to continue praying and asking with a full assurance of hope that He will bring His promise to bless us to pass.

Hebrews 6:11–12 tells us:

In the context of Hebrews 6, “the end” refers to the end of our journey here on earth, whether it is going to meet the Lord when we’ve run our race or when the rapture happens. In the meantime, because our heavenly Father desires to bless us (Heb. 6:13), we can also understand “the end” to refer to the arrival of the breakthrough or outcome we have been believing God for. And until either one comes, Scripture encourages us not to give up or become sluggish.

For some of us, perhaps we have grown weary, and our faith is flagging. We may find ourselves thinking, “I used to believe… but if God wants to bless me, He will.”

But beloved, our Father has already provided all that you need. A refrigerator can be full of food, and yet someone in the room could be terribly hungry if the refrigerator is never opened. In the same way, God may have already prepared an abundance of blessings for us, but we will only get to enjoy them if we ask for and receive them. Prayer is how we lay hold of and appropriate what He has already given.

Some believers fear that praying again and again for the same thing is equivalent to being in unbelief. But Scripture shows us otherwise.

Our Lord Jesus Himself taught this through a parable in Luke 11. A man receives a friend late at night and has nothing to feed him. He goes to his neighbor and knocks on the door. Though the door is shut and the household is asleep, the man keeps knocking.

And notice what the Lord says: “Because of his importunity… he will rise and give him as many as he needeth” (Luke 11:8 KJV).

The Lord shared this not to hint at a reluctant God, but to show the importance of perseverance in prayer. He was encouraging us not to give up too quickly but to keep coming to our Father with confidence.

At times, we pray once and forget that we prayed. And when the answer comes, we thank people or circumstances, without realizing that it was God who opened the doors and moved the situation for us. Persevering in prayer keeps our hearts conscious of the Father and His love toward us.

And if you are believing for healing, know this: Your Father’s heart is for you to be healed and whole. Our Lord Jesus was scourged so that you can be whole today. Whether you see the manifestation yet or not, it has already been paid for at the cross. And prayer is part of how we keep laying hold of this blessing.

He has sworn to surely bless you

Hebrews 6:13–14 tells us:

God did not need to swear. His word alone is enough. And yet, knowing how easily we can grow discouraged, He confirmed His promise with an oath and swore by Himself, because there was no one greater.

And what did He swear? Not judgment or punishment. But blessing. And not maybe, but surely!

Hebrews 6:17–18 goes on to say,

He gives us two unchangeable things, His promise and His oath. And in both, it is impossible for Him to lie. He did this so that we would have strong encouragement, especially in seasons of waiting.

When God first gave Abraham this promise, the fulfillment did not come overnight. Abraham waited years before Isaac was born. In fact, his circumstances gave him no natural reason to hope. And yet Scripture tells us that Abraham hoped against all hope (Rom. 4:18).

His hope was not anchored in circumstances, but in God’s word. He continued to walk with God and to trust His promise, even as time stretched on.

Abraham’s story assures us that a delay does not mean God has forgotten about us. Friend, what are you believing for today? Healing? Provision? Restoration? Your Father’s heart is to bless you. And what He has sworn, He will surely bring to pass in His appointed time.

Let hope anchor your soul

Despite knowing all this, our natural tendency is still to gravitate toward the negative. Even before the day begins, do you sometimes find your thoughts drifting toward worry, fear, or worst-case scenarios? If that’s you, don’t feel bad about it. It’s the flesh rearing its head. Just remember that right now, we are no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit, and we are called to live not by sight, but by faith.

This is also why the Bible speaks of hope as something that guards us inwardly. First Thessalonians 5:8 calls it “the helmet of the hope of salvation.” Like a helmet, hope will guard us against pessimism and negative expectations that can quietly settle into our thinking. When discouraging or fearful thoughts arise, hope will bring us back to what God has promised.

And salvation here is not limited to our eternal salvation in Christ. It encompasses wholeness, healing, preservation, peace, and every blessing that has been made available through the finished work of our Lord Jesus. This means we are invited to live with hope not only for eternity, but also for our lives today!

Hebrews 6:19 gives us a beautiful picture of hope: “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.”

An anchor is what holds a ship in place, especially when the waters are rough or in the midst of a storm. It gives stability and weight, keeping the ship from being carried away. In the same way, hope anchors our souls. It steadies us and helps us remain firm, even when what we see around us feels uncertain.

This is the kind of hope God desires for us.

We see this clearly in the story of the twelve spies sent to scout the promised land. All twelve saw the same land, with the same giants and fortified cities. But they did not come back with the same conclusion.

Ten of the spies focused on what stood in their way. They spoke of the giants, the walls, and their own weakness. They saw themselves as grasshoppers, and in their hearts they concluded that they could not enter the land God had promised the Israelites (Num. 13:31–33, Gen. 15:18).

Joshua and Caleb saw the same things, yet spoke about them very differently. They described the land as exceedingly good. And of the giants, they said, “They are our bread” (Num. 14:7–9). They were not pretending the giants were small. They simply saw them through the lens of God’s promise.

Nothing about the situation had changed. What was different was where their hearts were anchored. Because their heart and hope were anchored in God, Joshua and Caleb were not shaken by what they saw, even as others drew back in fear. God appreciated the faith they demonstrated in His Word. And it was they, not the ten, who eventually entered the land God had promised.

This is what it looks like to have hope as an anchor for our souls.

Beloved, life will bring pressures and uncertainties. But when our hope is anchored in God, we are not easily shaken. We can face our challenges without shrinking back, even seeing them as “bread,” because we’re holding on to our Father’s Word and promise over our lives.

So as you step into this new year, let hope anchor your soul. Let it steady your heart and shape how you see what lies ahead. And as your hope and heart remain anchored in Him, faith will arise (Heb. 11:1), and you can move forward with confidence, trusting that what He has promised, He will surely bring to pass!

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