I’ve been thinking about hope recently – a lot. I’ve posted on this in this space before: everybody hurts, including Christians. Sometimes I wonder if those of us in Christ are susceptible to longings and hurts unknown to the world. We are strangers and aliens here and we have glimpsed the promise: our final healing and glorification, and our face to face reunion with the One who died for us! Our present world fades in comparison – as Caedmon’s Call sings, this is “not the land that was promised us”. And although we’re partakers of joys and adventures unknown to those outside of Christ, we still feel the burden of our homesickness. The Bible exhorts us to keep our hopes up, and keep them focused on the promises of God.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

– Hebrews 6:13-20 (ESV)

Abraham was also called by God out of the place that once felt like home, and he was given promises that he sometimes thought were impossible. But by faith he knew, because he knew the one who made the promise. God, who cannot lie, made the promise and then swore by himself.

There is absolutely nothing greater that he could have sworn by! God meant what he said to Abraham. And he brought it to pass. The writer of Hebrews makes the connection here between God’s promise to Abraham and his promise to us.

Hope can be hard to maintain in the midst of trouble. But if you’ve fled to Jesus for refuge you are a citizen of a city with strong, strong fortifications. Be encouraged! There is hope set before us. Hold fast!

The writer of this difficult chapter in Hebrews understood that hope, and, as the writer dwells on that hope, the language in this passage begins to soar. Yes, the promise given to us and the hope that inspires are sure and steadfast. And strong – solid like an anchor to keep us from being blown off course into despair. The winds will blow! But we are anchored with strong chains to a solid rock.

And hope is not content to just stay with us and comfort us. It pushes forward, entering even into the once-forbidden inner place, the Holy of Holies, behind the veil. That’s the place where God is.

And we can go there; we have access and can enter boldly, because Jesus has blazed the trail.

Enter in. And don’t lose hope!