Do You Still Hope?

 Do You Still Hope?

“…provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith,
without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard.”
— From Colossians 1

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Much ink has been spilled—centuries of it—on the debate between grace and works.
Are we saved by faith alone? Or must we prove it with our lives?

Paul, writing to the Colossians, offers a quiet test. A subtle but striking marker of a life worthy to be presented before God:

Do you still hope?

Not: Did you once believe?
Not: Are you serving in ministry?
Not: Are you winning arguments, or appearing righteous, or keeping busy with religious activity?

Just this:

Have you remained “steadfast… without shifting from the hope”?

That may be the rarest thing of all.

I was raised in a tradition where hope in Christ’s return wasn’t symbolic. It was real.
We expected it. We talked about it. We looked up.

And while that watchfulness sometimes took on the tone of exclusivity—yes, sometimes even oddness—there was something deeply reverent about it. A simple, unshakable conviction:

I don’t care what people say. Jesus is coming back.

That hope made us peculiar. It also made us grounded.

But it gets harder to hold, doesn’t it? Harder as the years pass. Harder when He keeps not coming back.
Harder when even the faithful begin to say, “I thought He’d come in my lifetime. But maybe it isn’t true.”

A friend once told me he’d lost much of his faith over this very point:

If Jesus didn’t return in the first generation, wasn’t that a kind of lie?

That ache runs deep.

And yet—Paul doesn’t demand certainty. He doesn’t demand productivity. He simply says: Stay rooted. Don’t shift. Don’t lose the hope.

You may have theological tangles. You may have doctrinal scars. You may struggle with unity, with fellowship, with fatigue.

But if you still hope—you’re still anchored.

You still look up. You still whisper, “Come, Lord Jesus.” You still dare to believe there’s a promise waiting to be fulfilled.

And that, Paul says, is what makes you blameless.

So ask yourself today—not Am I winning? or Am I strong? But simply:

Do I still hope?

If so… stay.
Stand.
Look up.

He hasn’t forgotten.