I read something good again this morning in my devotional time.  The topic was pertaining to our having hope because Christ lives in us. There were several verses relating to that point.. "Christ in you the hope of glory" being one. "no hope without God in the world" being another from Eph.  Well, what is the hope of glory?

It was demonstrated by using two pots of dirt.  both of them are identical, with the same soil and the same amount of light, water, and necessities.  But we will give one of them "the hope of glory", but allow the other to remain hopeless.  How is this done?  We only need to plant a rose bulb (seed ) in one of them. The action takes a mere second, but now suddenly that pot has the hope of glory. The seed planted inside of it contains the potential for blossoming into a brilliant crimson rose sometime in the future.  The other pot, no matter what happens to it ,has no such hope.  We could spray paint it with liquid gold, drive it around in a limousine, or erect a shrine for it, but it would still  not  have the hope of glory. Without a seed in it, it would never be anything more than a pot of dirt.

At the time we believed in Christ, He was planted in our little human  "pot of dirt". given time, this seedling Christ will grow and eventually be glorified in his saints (2 Thes 1:10  That will be a marvelous blossoming in the future.. In a particular date known only to God, the Christ that was hidden within us at the beginning of our faith will blaze forth in a show of divine splendor.  As Paul said, "when Christ who is our life appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory (col 3;4.  THIS IS TRUE HOPE that the silent spiritual reality currently inside of us will become visibly manifested on the outside. It will be a time of brilliant power as the Lord Jesus "will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body" (Phil 3:21)  Since the Lord of Glory lives in us, our hope of glory is not some expectation that will prove in the end to be the stuff of fairy tales.  We are assured that "whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame" Rom 10:11

Isn't that encouraging.  I love it when I read things like this that put it together in such a simple yet profound way. We have hope.. there are so many people out there just living from day to day, without hope.  May they see us Christians as ones who have a living hope, and be attracted to Him.