Hope Diamond (or maybe a club)

Our last post talked about the perils of hoping for a big hand in poker. It happens a lot during a tournament. Ask anyone who's ever been on an open-ended straight draw, or held two pair at the turn with dreams of a full house.

We heard a deceased minister explain the other day in a taped radio program it's one thing to hope for one million dollars -- but you usually have to work to get it. Yet the Bible shows hope isn't wrong. In fact....

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. -- Romans 15:13

God's Spirit is designed to fill you with hope -- and then some! Not for a "Broadway straight" necessarily, but for the return of Jesus. (Verse 12 at least hints at that.) And for what will occur when He comes again....

....the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. -- Colossians 1:27

Believers hope to gain something glorious beyond this human existence:

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. -- Philippians 3:20-21

Poker players don't know for sure if the winning card will come on the river. But believers in Jesus need faith that He will come again -- for what one old-time preacher called in a sermon "Payday Someday."