Have you ever waited for a clear sunshine-filled day, only to have dark skies and storm clouds surround you? Have you ever watched the clock tick by and realized that what you were waiting for was not going to happen? Did you ever feel like you were on a mountain top envisioning great dreams for your future, only to see your hopes dashed on the rocks below? Did you feel helpless, angry, downcast, weak, and dejected? A multitude of emotions flood our hearts when hope is lost.
Hope is waiting for something good to come, even if that something has not yet materialized. Hope is a vision of what could be. Hope is something that you are joyfully anticipating. Hope stirs a person to action. It motivates us to get up in the morning and face the day, even when we are surrounded by hardships.
But there is a problem. If we place our hope in the wrong things, they will inevitably let us down. Those things may sound good, but they cannot truly satisfy. Education, employment, wealth, health, government, retirement, friends, religion, family, the American dream, and everything else that this world has to offer; will fail at some point and trample hope.
But there is a true hope. There is One who will never let you down, never fail you, and never break a promise. That One is eternally faithful and steadfast. He is Jesus Christ, the Lord God Almighty.
I can hear the objections. “Hold on! No way! I already tried religion and God failed me!” It may feel like that when you see and experience trouble in this world. Last year many of us in many ways felt the weight of lost hope.
Jesus is not a religion. He is the only true God who can offer hope because of His great love demonstrated at the cross. Through His death on the cross (in our place for our sins) and his resurrection from death to life, Jesus has conquered Satan, sin and death. All who hope in Christ have an eternal hope which Christ has fulfilled and which He will complete.
Take some time today and write down every single thing that you are hoping in and hoping for. Do those things eternally fulfill and satisfy your soul? If you are honest in your evaluation of those things, discouragement may follow. But the Word of God has some words of comfort for us.
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” Psalm 43:5 (ESV)
May the Word of God and the work of Christ give you an everlasting hope in a world desperately in need of hope.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Paul Taylor