Hope for Christians is not wishful thinking or some vague pipe dream, rather it is God-given and Spirit-filled. It is alive and active in our lives. It’s not pie in the sky when you die, but steak on your plate while you wait.

It is the confident expectation that God will fulfil His promises, knowing that God has kept His promises in the past.

Do you know that God has a plan? When we look at the state of this world you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise, but He really does.

God spoke through the prophets of old, declaring that plan to all. Jeremiah proclaimed:

 ^“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV)

Those plans to give us hope and a future were and are the birth, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the sending of the Holy Spirit as proof of His return.

If that isn’t enough, the prophet Isaiah prophesied specifically of the birth of Christ:

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14)

Immanuel means ‘God with us’ Matthew’s gospel quotes Isaiah. Joseph was having a little trouble believing what Mary had told him about how she got pregnant, and he fell asleep thinking about how to get away from her.