Hope is either dead and inactive or alive and powerfully active. If it is dead, you can still be happy on a human level, that is, be alternately satisfied and dissatisfied all according to changing circumstances. On the other hand, if it is alive, it immediately produces joy, happiness, and boldness! Then there is no way it can be otherwise. It would be impossible. In this context, it is not fitting to say “all things are possible,” precisely in this sense. It is so blessed that this is not possible. You cannot avoid rejoicing as truly as there is life in hope! “That you may abound in hope . . . .” Rom. 15:13. If hope is at all alive, then joy is great. Moreover, hope abounds more and more as our eyes are opened to the exceedingly glorious hope we are called to, and to the riches of the glory of His inheritance among the saints. Eph. 1:18. Where can we find reliable and thorough information about how great the glory is that we are called to, or in other words, everything that we have a right to hope for? In the Scriptures! Search, dear friends. Use the Bible concordance! It is the same as with the Bible. What is the point of having it if we are not using it? Read everything about hope, joy, boldness, happiness, exultation, transformation, perfection, glory, growth, etc. The more that you see what you can hope for, the more you will abound in living hope, and the greater your joy and boldness will become! Soon it will more than exceed everything you could imagine previously! Joy in God will always be present in your heart through a constant renewal and increase of this living hope, and it will increase at the same time, beyond what you currently hope for! This fullness of joy enables you always to be ready for every good work and ministry. And this will necessarily, almost automatically, cause everything in this world, both its glory and its annoyances, to become unspeakably small in your eyes. But observe this: It is not because it has already become so glorious in your life that you rejoice so greatly in hope, but because it most assuredly (the “full assurance”) will become so exceedingly glorious if you give your all for this living hope, and be steadfast until the end! Meditate on Hebrews 6:11 and 12.Elias Aslaksen

“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!” Rom. 11:33. Jesus had renounced being like God in all this wisdom and glory. He became a Man, taking upon Himself the form of a servant. He humbled Himself and became obedient till death, even the death of the cross. Phil. 2:7-8. It is a great mystery that it was precisely in this humiliation as a servant and slave that Jesus again partook of the whole fullness of God’s wisdom. The greatness of it is in the fact that He has shown us the way, and that He wants to help us to partake of it as much as possible. The more quickly we humbly follow Him in His humiliation, the sooner we will partake of spiritual treasures. Then we will receive grace to die to all the evil, sluggish, and human tendencies that dwell in us, and to partake of the glory of an incorruptible life and the flexible wisdom of God. Many people would gladly be transformed into the image of the glory of Christ without first being reconciled to Him in His earthly body through death. Col. 1:22. However, this is impossible. In this humiliation—in all kinds of trials and tribulations—we see our poverty and lack of wisdom. We particularly see our poverty when it comes to serving the others in the right way. However, it is precisely through this poorness in spirit that we take God’s wisdom by force. A scientist who looks at the star constellations to study them will constantly feel smaller and poorer as time goes on; yet he will at the same time become richer in knowledge and wisdom concerning God’s creation—more than the average person. Paul saw his weakness and poverty in his walk before God’s face, yet it was precisely in this weakness that God revealed His power and wisdom. In the church in Laodicea they thought they were rich, but the truth of the matter was that they were poor. In Smyrna they were poor, but Christ said they were rich. They were rich in love and in all good things. Concerning the church in Thessalonica we read so blessedly that their faith increased abundantly and that their love for one another increased in each one of them. They knew how to increase in spiritual values. God said to the rich man, “‘You fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:20-21. The wise and faithful servant received a totally different testimony. “His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’” Matt. 25:21. Both of them went into eternity, and now it is vital for us to place ourselves in the right company as quickly as possible. It takes time to prove your faithfulness, and the time is short.Aksel J. Smith