Lyrics
There is a hope that burns within my heart,
That gives me strength for every passing day;
A glimpse of glory now revealed in meagre part,
Yet drives all doubt away:
I stand in Christ, with sins forgiven;
And Christ in me, the hope of heaven!
My highest calling and my deepest joy,
To make His will my home.
There is a hope that lifts my weary head,
A consolation strong against despair,
That when the world has plunged me in its deepest pit,
I find the Saviour there!
Through present sufferings, future’s fear,
He whispers ‘courage’ in my ear.
For I am safe in everlasting arms,
And they will lead me home.
There is a hope that stands the test of time,
That lifts my eyes beyond the beckoning grave,
To see the matchless beauty of a day divine
When I behold His face!
When sufferings cease and sorrows die,
And every longing satisfied.
Then joy unspeakable will flood my soul,
For I am truly home.
The story behind this song
I wrote this song with good friend and excellent musician Mark Edwards a few years ago. I’d been wanting to explore the theme of hope for a while; it’s a familiar term to us, and we often sing about it or read about it in the Scriptures. However, I’m not sure we’re always aware of exactly what Christian hope is, and how it differs from the other hopes in our lives.
We all have hopes and dreams, whether we are Christians or not, and these are often the driving forces in our lives. We hope to arrive at a certain place, to achieve certain goals, maybe financial or career-related, and we all hope the best for other people, perhaps our children or our close friends. These things can of course be great things to hope and pray for, but they remain hopes precisely because we never know for certain whether they will be fulfilled or not. They are tinged with uncertainty, and we do not know what lies around the corner.
Christian hope, however, is very different. When the Bible talks about hope, it talks about something that is certain, and can perhaps be broken down into two different certainties. The first is that no matter where we go and what we do in this life, God will be with us, and He will love us. The second is that when this life is over, we will not perish but will spend eternity at home with Christ. These certainties remain ‘hopes’ not because they may or may not come to fruition, but because they haven’t been fully realised yet – the second because we are still living this life on earth, and the first because there are and will be trials in which it might not be obvious that God is by our side. These certain hopes put everything in our lives into perspective, and we can live by faith on the solid and certain hope that Christ gives us.
“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil.” Heb 6:19
