Confident Hope!

For Tuesday, April 28, 2026:

Colossians 1:4-5 NLT: “We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.”

Paul is writing this Epistle to the church in Colosse. It could have been written to any group of believers. Paul could have been writing to your church today!

Church is more than a social gathering. The common denominator is what Paul calls “confident hope,” also known as belief or faith. We believe everything that Jesus told us: Everything that we know was created by God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is our rescuer, our redeemer. Jesus forgave our sins and proved that there is life after this life. When he said, “See you later,” he was going to prepare a place for us in the eternal Kingdom. Death is not the end for us, just as it was not the end for Jesus.

Believers share unshakable faith in the promises of Jesus. When we first heard the Gospel or Good News, it made sense to us. Our devotion has only grown stronger as time marches on. Like Paul and like the Colossians, we’re blessed by sharing confident hope!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

The Father’s House

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Truth & Freedom Church

Family of God!

For Wednesday, April 3, 2024:

Colossians 1:4-5a NLT, to the church in Colosse from Paul and Timothy: “We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven.”

Early Christians called each other “brother” and “sister.” Some still do nowadays. Believers were all selected to join the family of God, and everyone in the family are akin to one another. “To all who believed Jesus and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.”

Three things cemented Paul’s affiliation with these people. The first was “faith,” knowing who Jesus was and believing he could do what he said he would do. And the second was “love for all of God’s people.” “Loving their neighbor” was the differentiating value that set Christians apart from the general population. And the third, “confident hope.” The Message translation explains it like this: “The lines of purpose in your lives never grow slack, tightly tied as they are to your future in heaven, kept taut by hope.” Jesus promised believers a hereafter in the presence of God, and he will not fail us!

Paul sought out these characteristics in the Colossian church just as we should seek them in our own church and in our own lives. We are saved by grace through faith, so double down on the faith. Continue loving your brothers and sisters and all God’s people, even your enemies. Pray that they would see the light and change their ways. And cling tightly to the hope promised by Jesus, who said he would never leave us or forsake us. Count on it!

Norton Lawellin

Jesus In the City Fellowship

Hope!

For Thursday, November 9, 2023:

Romans 15:13 NLT: “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Paul is perpetually optimistic. Paul knows God and his Son. God is the source of all hope, and Paul is working for that God and his Son. If you hang out with the right people, you will find hope. If you count on God as your source of hope, you will know joy and peace.

Touched by the Holy Spirit, you have hope both in this world and in the next. Count on it! God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. This hope isn’t fleeting. There’s hope for all who know Jesus as the Messiah. Pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you too will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

God didn’t abandon us on this planet!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship

Confident Hope!

For Thursday, December 17, 2020

Romans 12:12 GNT: “Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times.”

Confidence in Jesus being who he said he is, and in Jesus being able to accomplish all he said gives us an abundance of hope, and that puts joy on our faces!

Things may go wrong from time to time, but believers don't park there. Paul taught the believers to focus on the final goal, the end result with Jesus escorting you into Paradise. Keep your eye on the mark, and run the race in such a way as to win the prize. God wants you to succeed!

Our Father in Heaven already knows our needs, but praying lets Him know that WE are confident in trusting Him for all things – all provision, and the outcome of all situations. Confidence in the Father fills us with eternal hope, which makes life's journey a little more pleasant!

Merry Christmas – stay safe!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship, 3249 30^th Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55406