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We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you.

There was a song in an old movie that spoke of an ant with high hopes. The song says that everyone knows “an ant can’t move a rubber tree plant.” Then comes the refrain, “But he had high hopes” The audience is then left with the picture of a hope-filled ant really moving a rubber tree plant, rather than being frustrated by an immovable object or being crushed by its weight on his back. Hope is seen overcoming the impossible.

For Christians, hope is never alone. The apostle Paul wrote, “Now these three remain: faith, hope and love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). Try removing a leg from a three-legged stool and you’ll have nothing to stand on. So, it is with these. If you have no hope, your faith will not stand, and your love will not endure. Faith and love in the hearts of Christians springs up from the hope of heaven promised us in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The despairing gloom of sin’s dark clouds that overshadow this world in which we live is swept away to let in the light of the Son because he has given us hope. He endured the punishment for our sins. He rose victorious over death. He defeated Satan and opened heaven’s gates for us.

Now, nothing, not even death, can steal our bright future because our hope is stored up for us already in heaven.

Maybe an ant can’t move a rubber tree plant, but our Lord Jesus still does the impossible! In him, we have received the highest of hopes!

Dear Savior, cause my faith and love to spring up from hope in the glorious, good news of all that you have done for me on earth and have prepared for me in heaven. Amen.

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. ™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.