"Hope" | December 7, 2025 | Ps Joel Lowery

The Christmas season arrives with its familiar rhythm - twinkling lights, family gatherings, carefully wrapped presents, and an endless stream of activities. Yet beneath the festive busyness, there's often something else: a quiet ache, an unspoken disappointment, a weight we carry that doesn't quite fit the cheerful atmosphere around us.

Perhaps you've walked into December with a limp. Maybe you're carrying questions that feel too heavy for the holiday season. Why hasn't God shown up in that area? Why do good people go through terrible circumstances? Why does the promise seem so far from the reality you're living?

If this resonates with you, there's an invitation waiting - not to simply "behave" better or try harder, but to behold something greater than yourself.

The Soil of Suffering

Romans 8:22-25 offers us a profound truth: all of creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And here's what's remarkable - we believers also groan. Even with the Holy Spirit within us, even with faith in our hearts, we still groan.

This isn't a failure of faith. It's not evidence that you've somehow missed God or fallen short. Groaning simply means you recognize that the world is not as it should be. It means you're honest enough to acknowledge that what you see with your eyes doesn't always line up with the promises of God.

The Greek word for "groan" captures a deep, involuntary cry that comes from pain or longing. It's not manufactured or forced - it's the authentic response of a heart that knows something is missing, something is broken, something needs to be made right.

But here's where the story takes a beautiful turn: pain is the soil where hope takes root.

Isaiah 9:2 declares that the people walking in darkness will see a great light. Notice it doesn't say the light comes to those who have everything figured out or those standing on the mountaintop of success. The light comes specifically to those in darkness, to those dwelling in the land of deep shadow.

If you're coming into this season with groaning, with weariness, with something heavy on your heart - you're not disqualified from hope. You're actually positioned for it.

Hope Has a Name

The essence of the Christian message isn't primarily about behavior modification. It's not a list of rules shouted from a distance. It's about beholding - turning our eyes to see what God has done.

When the angel appeared to Mary in Luke 1:35, announcing that she would give birth to the Son of God, hope ceased being merely a concept. Hope became a person. Hope was given a name: Jesus Christ.

This is why 1 Peter 1:3 speaks of a "living hope" through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Not a fragile hope. Not a fading hope. Not a hope that depends on our circumstances aligning perfectly. But a living hope - one that breathes, overcomes, and defeats death itself.

Matthew 1:22-23 reminds us that this child would be called Emmanuel, meaning "God with us." Not God far away, watching our struggles from a distance. Not God merely sending instructions or advice. But God stepping directly into our darkness, our pain, our confusion, and our questions.

A theologian once said, "God's response to suffering was liberation, not explanation." God didn't send a detailed manual explaining why we suffer. He sent a Savior to liberate us from it. He doesn't just give reasons; He gives rescue.

The Already and Not Yet

Here's where it gets beautifully mysterious: we live in the tension between what is and what will be. We've been saved, yet we're still being renewed. We're redeemed, yet we're waiting for full redemption. We see glimpses of God's kingdom breaking through, but we don't yet see it in its fullness.

Romans 8:23-25 tells us we wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as His adopted children. We were given this hope when we were saved. If we already had everything God promised, we wouldn't need hope. But hope fills the gap between the present reality and the coming fulfillment.

This isn't passive waiting. This is active, confident expectation. It's the kind of hope that can withstand the strongest winds because it's rooted not in circumstances but in the character of God Himself.

Romans 15:13 offers this prayer: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Notice that progression - filled completely, then overflowing. Hope doesn't trickle; it overflows. And that overflow comes not from our effort but from the Holy Spirit's power.

Lifting Our Eyes

Imagine for a moment looking down at your feet. There you see all your problems, your pain, your doubts, your disappointments. Everything that weighs you down is right there.

Now slowly begin to look up. As you do, you see light - the light that comes into darkness. Not light you've manufactured through positive thinking or determination, but light that's already there, waiting for you to notice it.

The problems at your feet haven't disappeared. They're still there. But your perspective begins to shift. You can see that God is good. He is full of light. And you desperately need some of that light.

That's what hope is - believing that everything God says is true and crying out, "I need some of that. I'm groaning under the weight of what life has brought me, but I believe You want to meet me here."

An Invitation to Behold

This Christmas season, the invitation isn't to ignore your pain or pretend everything is fine. It's not to manufacture joy you don't feel or paste on a smile that doesn't reach your heart.

The invitation is to behold. To turn your eyes away from the weight you're carrying and toward the One who came to carry it for you. To let His light shine brighter than whatever you walked in with today.

Hope has come. Hope is here. Hope has a name, and His name is Jesus - Emmanuel, God with us. He stepped into the arena of human suffering not as a spectator but as a Savior. And He invites you to overflow with confident hope through the power of His Spirit.

Whatever you're groaning under today, know this: you're not alone, you're not disqualified, and you're not forgotten. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Behold your hope. He has come.