The Colossians verse talks about “the hope of glory.” This means that because of Jesus’ power working in you, you will become everything God intended you to be when He created you. He does the work, He supplies the power, and His presence in you ensures that the process will be completed! This is not a vague, “I hope it happens” kind of thing – this is a certainty because of the love of God as your Father and His power at work in you through the presence of His Spirit.
What we’re asked to do is to cooperate with His process. We do this by filling our minds and spirits with the truth of God’s Word, by thinking about Jesus and asking the Holy Spirit to help you do what He would do in the situations of your life. Replace the pollutants of trashy media with the stories of how Jesus interacted with people in the Gospel accounts. Think about these stories, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you be like Him.
One very effective way of meditating on these stories of Jesus is to imagine yourself as one of the characters in the story. The old Mystics called this “affective contemplation,” because the person meditating – you! – “affects” the character, as though you are the person in the story. You can take the role of the one Jesus is ministering to, and feel what that person must have felt as Jesus healed them. Or you can imagine yourself as one of the bystanders, and feel the reactions that people had to Jesus and to His ministry. Or, you can play the part of Jesus Himself, feeling His compassion for the broken, and perhaps His frustration with the religious people of the day who wanted to block His ministry. Taking one of these roles gets you into the story, and allows the Holy Spirit to work in you what was happening then. Very cool!
One big deal is this: as you have received the forgiveness of Jesus for your sins, make the choice to forgive people that have hurt or offended you through the course of your life. The Holy Spirit will help you with this – just ask Him to show you the situations in which you need to forgive someone else. This releases everything to God, your Father, and brings you to a place of freedom in your own spirit.
As you fill your mind with the truth of what God thinks about you and those around you, you will begin to think differently about life. Instead of hopelessness, you will begin to sense hope rising up in your heart. Your mind will begin to be renewed, little by little, as you begin to think like Jesus thinks. A great resource for finding out what your Father God feels about you is “The Father’s Love Letter.” You can find it through an online search.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in hope through the knowledge of Jesus’ presence in you!
Gary Wiens
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