Hope is … Expecting the Best is Yet to Come
by Liz Giertz, Contributing Writer
When was the last time you were deliriously happy?
When you graduated from high school, or were accepted to the college of your dreams? When you were promoted to a position you had diligently labored to achieve? Perhaps on your wedding day? At the birth of your child or grandchild? The moment the doctors declared your body cancer-free?
We wait for these milestone events in our lives with great anticipation and then celebrate their coming. Often we can hardly contain our excitement and long for those around us to share in our jubilation.
My husband and his closest childhood friend shared a saying growing up. They continue to remind each other through letters and phone calls not only when times are tough and as they pass into a new phase of life, but even during times of great joy.
“The best is yet to come.”
No matter what you are facing today – joy, brokenness, sorrow, fear, anxiety, excitement, stress – let their words bring you hope for your future: the best is yet to come.
Whether we live in poverty and pain, or with great power and wealth, something indescribably better awaits us in heaven. The hope we have is universal because no matter what we as individuals experience on earth, the new heaven and the new earth God has prepared for all those who believe is beyond our wildest imaginations of paradise.
The hope we have in Jesus is not influenced by earthly circumstances.
Even now as we look forward with great anticipation to the joy of Christmas, we know that our hope is not fulfilled at the birth of the Christ child.
While Christ’s birth to a virgin and fulfillment of prophecy is certainly worthy of celebration, it is His resurrection that gives us life and reassures us that the best is yet to come. Though we find joy in the cradle and forgiveness in the cross, our hope comes from the empty tomb. It is the living Christ that assures us of our own coming resurrection to be with Him in all His splendor and glory.
Our hope is based on the resurrection of Christ, not His birth.
It is God’s true and faithful promise of heaven over which we are encouraged by the prophet Isaiah to be deliriously happy – to rejoice:
“For behold, I create a new heaven and a new earth.
And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.
Be glad and rejoice forever in what I create…”
Isaiah 65:17-18 NKJV
Both the excitement and the sorrow we experience in our earthly bodies will be eclipsed by the unmatched joy we claim in His resurrection.
So, if you are feeling stressed or overwhelmed or discouraged by your circumstances this season, rejoice in knowing that the best is yet to come. If you are filled with joy and counting your blessings, be deliriously happy knowing that God has something even better in store for you.
Hope is knowing that what we face today – joy or angst – will pale in comparison with the glory of God’s eternal best for us in His Kingdom.
This gives us reason to rejoice together and be deliriously happy no matter what our circumstances because hope is expecting the best is yet to come.
Dear Father, Thank you for the hope you give us in Jesus. The hope we have in what is yet to come is far greater than any of our circumstances today. Help us to recall that hope both in times of trial and of great blessings. In Jesus Name, Amen.
Thank you to Liz Giertz for contributing this article to the #RealHope series
Liz Giertz writes for her blog, My Messy Desk.
This article is part of the #RealHope blog series and Hope Is Holiday Devotional Study.
For information regarding our current and future studies, visit our Bible study page.
The best is yet to come! What a hope-filled promise we have to hold onto today. It’s hard to see that hope when we watch the news each day. It’s like we sit in expectation, wondering what bad thing will happen next. Your post is a timely reminder that we DO have hope – a hope that can’t be taken away! Thank you for your words – what a blessing!
Yes, Kristine! Nothing we see in the news has the power to diminish our hope in Jesus!
My husband also has an old friend that he keeps in touch with, and they encourage one another. There’s something so sweet about that kind of relationship. Jesus wants to be that person in our lives — Thanks be to the “God of all hope!”
So true, Michele. Even if we never have an earthly friend to encourage us God will always be whispering, “the best is yet to come, My child.”
Reminds me of the song, “I Am a Friend of God”. And it’s so true, He does want to be a friend that encourages us and cheers us along.
When times are tough, I always like to sing the song “the best is yet to come” it is one of my favorites. How can you not perk up when you meditate on this promise?! I am so thankful we have this hope as Christians, I couldn’t imagine going through life with out it.
Oh, how I long for the whole world to know this kind of hope!
Joy in Jesus!
Amen!