During the first week of Advent, we focus on HOPE.
Hope is not a feeling we muster. It is not optimism. It is not the power of positive thinking. Hope, in the biblical imagination, is rooted in the character of God and in the future God is already bringing into our reality.
Paul says, “In hope we were saved.” And then he adds, “Hope that is seen is not hope” because “who hopes for what they already see?” (Romans 8). Christian hope always stretches us beyond what is toward what will be.
Hope dares us to trust that God is already moving before the evidence arrives.
Faith walks right alongside hope.
The preacher of Hebrews calls faith “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is not the opposite of doubt. Faith is the muscle that takes the next step while we wait for God’s promise to rise over the horizon.
Faith does not shrink back. Faith leans forward.
And Kingdom-action is where hope and faith put on flesh.
Jesus teaches that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed—small, almost invisible—and yet growing into a sheltering tree. He says the Kingdom is yeast, hidden in the dough, slowly transforming everything it touches.
The Kingdom is not escapism. It is participation.
It is joining God’s ongoing work in the world even while we long for its fullness.
So Paul says, “We walk by faith, not by sight.” And James reminds us that faith without works is dead. The prophets declare that those who “hope in the Lord shall renew their strength… they shall run and not be weary.”
Hope shapes our posture.
Faith steadies our steps.
And as a result, Kingdom-action becomes our witness.
We trust God’s future.
We live God’s future.
We grow God’s future.
Hope is waiting.
Faith is walking.
Kingdom-action is planting seeds of resurrection even in places that still look like Good Friday.
And here is the good news for us today:
our hope is not in ourselves.
Our hope is not in the world as it stands.
Our hope is in the God who “makes all things new.” In the God who raised Jesus from the dead. In the Spirit who groans with us, intercedes for us, and empowers us.
So we hold hope.
We walk by faith.
We join Jesus in the healing, forgiving, justice-seeking work of the Kingdom.
LEAN INTO HOPE.
DARE TO BELIEVE.
LIVE LIKE YOU BELIEVE IN WHAT YOU HOPE FOR.
Because the One who calls us is faithful. The One who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it.