Hope in Times of HopelessnessSýnishorn

Our Hope for Today

Malachi 3:16 tells us that a scroll was written in God’s presence in heaven concerning those among the suffering returned exiles who remained faithful to the Lord. In verse 17, the Lord refers to these people as His treasured possession.

This description of God’s faithful people as having their names written in heaven appears throughout the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, we find it in several other places besides this Malachi passage. In the New Testament, we find it in areas such as Luke 10, Phil. 4, Heb. 12, Rev. 3:5, and 13:8. These passages point us to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When we turn to the gospel and allow it to point us to Christ during our hardships, we are reminded of what He said in John 16:33 on the night before He went to the cross. This is what He said: In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

Christ meant by these words that, because we live in a fallen world, hardships will come to us in one way or the other. Still, as we face these hardships, we should remember that, as Christians, we have His life and His victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil that will bring us through our hardships as we look to Him in faith and obedience.

So, as a result of the hardships we face these days, if we find ourselves feeling like the discouraged returned exiles in this Malachi passage, we need to let the gospel remind us that Christ Himself was the ultimate exile who came from heaven to give us both the assurance of God’s present help in our hardships, as well as the hope of our one day going to heaven where our names have already been written in the Lord’s book of life.