September 6 - Colossians 1: Hoping in the Right Direction

"[God speaking] What I am now telling you in Colossians flies squarely in the face of what many of My followers are teaching. It was the same in Colossae, where the spirit of the age influenced the theology of the church. My people there were in danger of placing their hope in experiences that I've never promised in this life. It was that danger that I used in prompting Paul to write this letter. Pay careful attention to what I'm now saying to you through his words:

"Place no hope in the experience of satisfaction now. If you do, you are shifting away from the hope held out in the gospel of My Son. You will then disfigure the Christian life into a search for a fullness of felt spiritual reality and complete freedom from evil's power that together promise to provide the life you've always wanted in this world.

"That's not the Christian life. To believe that it is blurs and discounts what My Son accomplished in His death and resurrection."  (66LL)

Where is my hope fixed? In a peaceful, satisfying marriage? In accomplished, obedient children who will sleep through the night, go to good schools and marry well? In an organized and amply supplied home? In a fulfilling ministry with people who don't disappoint or annoy? In a "balanced" schedule? In aging reasonably well and staying healthy? In friendships that encourage and validate? In having "enough" financially?

When I monitor my conversations with others and with God, I find that my hope is directed toward these kinds of unpromised experiences and has shifted away from hope "tightly tied to [my] future in heaven" (1:5). I need to recognize the boredom or dissatisfaction or restlessness or drivenness in my soul as "more an opportunity to aim my hope in the right direction" than "an emotional or spiritual problem to fix" (66LL)

The mystery [of the Gospel] in a nutshell is just this: Christ is in you, therefore you can look forward [hope!] to sharing in God's glory!   (1:27)