There are some Christians who do not believe that Jesus Christ is coming back. But there are many who do. They are the ones who have great hope in the Return of Christ. The Bible declares that he is indeed coming back. But what if he doesn't come back today, next week, or next year? I was talking to a friend of mine recently about hope. Now of course, it goes without saying that the greatest "hope" is that of the second coming of Jesus Christ. Nothing is going to top that, and we certainly look forward to that great event with anticipation and expectation

But that's not the only hope. It is undoubtedly the greatest hope, but certainly not the only hope. What about having expectations and anticipations for other things until he does return?

My friend and I were talking about how when a person has no hope, no expectations, and no anticipation of good things to come, they just give up. That's because they have nothing to look forward to. And, if you have nothing to look forward to that will lead to having nothing to live for.

Christ may not come back today, or next week, or next year. No one knows the day or the time. But until he does, we can have expectation of the "great hope," and, at the same time, have expectation and anticipation of God fulfilling other things that He has promised as well.

I know there are some well intentioned Christians that say many times, "Oh I can't wait for Christ to come back and get us all out of this mess; Oh what a day that will be when we leave this place."

Yes, that will be a great day. But although talk like that indicates that one does have the hope of Christ's Return, it also indicates a helplessness until he does return. God did not leave us hopeless nor did He leave us helpless.

There is nothing that we can do to speed up the return of Christ; we simply anticipate it and expect it; that's hope. We can believe the things that God has promised us in the here and now today, right now. We can believe what He said, and then anticipate, look for and expect for God to bring it pass.

We should not be sitting around hoping that God will "just do something." We can't spend our days hoping someone will come and rescue us from all our problems, nor can we ignore everything in this life and simply focus on the "great hope" of Christ's return.

God has given us a life to live. Each day when we wake up we have been given another day to live. Each day the promises of God are brand new. Each day is another opportunity to believe God and see Him work in our lives.

You can live each day with the hope of Christ's return; it could be today! But, live your life today, believing God's promises. Keep moving forward, asking, knocking and seeking. Anticipate God working in your life, and expect to receive what He has promised you.

The life that is to come will surely be beyond what we can comprehend. But the life we have been given to live today is full of the promises of His abundant blessings. Why not accept each new day as a gift from God with the opportunity to see Him work in your life? Expect to see His promises come to pass in your life