What Does It Mean to Find True Hope?

By Pastor Jeffrey Smith

Hope is a word that is thrown around a lot during the Christmas season.  There are catchy phrases that go along with it like “Jesus is the reason for the season.”  While we know that we can find hope in Jesus, sometimes we still find ourselves asking, what does it mean to find true hope. What does that look like?

We can see the example of people that found real hope in the Magi, or the Wisemen. These Magi were leaders in their community and they knew that a prophecy was about to be fulfilled so they came seeking out the Messiah in hopes to worship Him.  While they were seeking the Messiah, the King Herod called them, so that he could find more information about where Jesus was and have Jesus killed.

 Once the Magi found Jesus they found what they had been hoping for, the Messiah.  They show us what it really means to find that true hope.

The first thing that they did when they found Jesus was bow as an act of humbling themselves before the Messiah.  When we find real hope we first have to humble ourselves. 

The second thing the Magi did was to worship Jesus.  The Magi probably didn’t know the culturally acceptable way to worship, but they still worshipped. You can live a life of worship, even if you don’t have it all figured out because you can just come before God with a humble heart and lift up His name. 

The Magi brought treasures to Jesus and opened them up in front of Him.  We all get this chance as well.  We are all given talents and opportunity in life and we should open up those treasures before the Lord. 

Lastly, the Magi heard in a dream not to return the same way that they came so that Herod didn’t find out where Jesus was.  Once you come to Jesus, you never go back the way you came.