Hope

The world today offers us a million different things to put our hope in. 

We can put our hope in our jobs and our ability to provide for our loved ones.  But, as many of us know all too well, jobs don’t always last.  What do you lean on when the pink slip comes?

We can put our hope in our looks, for those who have such things to begin with.  But what do you lean on when age kicks in or you put on a few pounds or you are no longer seen as attractive?

We can put our hope in a good retirement and the enjoyment of our golden years.  But what do you lean on when the retirement fund starts to run dry?  What do lean on when your health starts to fail and you start to see the end of your life?

What do you lean on when your friends and family fail you?  When your health fails you?
What do you lean on when your life is taken from you at too early an age?
What do you lean on when all hope is lost?

There is only one thing in the world that transcends all things.  There is only one hope that will never fail you.

When God sent his son Jesus to Earth to die on a cross, he defeated all the trials this world could throw at you.  No matter what happens, when you place your whole being in his hands, there is nothing this world can drag you through that will take away your hope.  Because your hope is no longer in this world.

As the scriptures say, we should be storing up treasures in Heaven (Matthew 6: 19 - 21).  When we put our hope and faith in Jesus, we no longer live for this world, but we live for the eternity to come.  We live for Heaven.  This world is not our home, as we are citizens of Heaven (Philippians 3: 20 - 21).  The first thing we must do is accept that we are sinners in need of a savior, accepting the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross as the means of our salvation.  We then need to start seeing things as God sees them - in the light of eternity, not in the limited scope of our lives on Earth.  Life is but a vapor, here today and gone tomorrow (James 4: 13 - 15).  Why do we believe that something so limited could truly hold our hope?  No, the only hope with any staying power is the hope given to us by our creator.  Once we look to God as our hope and the stronghold of our lives, the trials of this life start to lose their grip on us.

Even though people suck and we all deserve to be telefragged, there is a God who loves us and forgives us, and he is the only hope we have in this life, and the life to come.