Real Hope: A Time for Hope Sample

Because God Will Bring About His Plans And Promises

GENESIS 4-12

In reading Genesis, we notice hope. God is the beginning and the end, the creator of all things, sovereign over everything, and He is present today. But we also notice how quickly the account moves from beauty and generosity, to disobedience, envy and murder. In Genesis 4, Cain murdered Abel. Then, in the time of Noah, evil flourished to the point that God regretted that He’d made humans on the earth. It says that ‘God was deeply troubled and grieved’. 

It’s important to sit with the weight of that. If we feel the extent of God’s grief and the burden of His regret, then we can comprehend the depth of God’s astounding grace and His saving plan. In Genesis 12, God revealed His plan for the world. He said that through Abraham and his descendants there would be hope and blessing to counteract the curse. There would be blessing for all who believe in Him!  

If we read ahead, we know what happens to Abraham’s descendants – from Isaac to David, and then to the Lord Jesus. But back when God spoke to Abraham and Sarah, they didn’t know what was coming, or how long it would take. They were stuck in the middle of it, and all they had was God’s promise. We hope they heard the stress on the word ‘I’. God said to them, ‘I will make you into a great nation.’ ‘I will bless you.’ ‘I will make your name great…’ Abraham and Sarah didn’t need to know how God would do it. They needed to know in whom to put their trust. 

It’s the same for us today in all the situations we face and don’t understand. We need to know in whom to put our trust. Today is a time to hope, because God will bring about His plans in Christ.