Hope: The Kind That Keeps Us GoingSample

DAY 3

WHAT DOES HOPE DO? 

1. Hope brings perspective just as hopelessness does. Hopelessness is not neutral. It is not just the absence of hope—it is giving up. It is deadly, literally speaking. 

Victor Franklin, who survived the concentration camps in Germany during WWII, said the ones that gave up hope are the ones that did not survive. 

Christians are different from any other being on the planet because of this vital truth in our lives called HOPE. Not just any hope—it is an ETERNAL LIVING HOPE. Why is it important? 

By nature, we are creatures of hope. 

Two men were hired to do the same job. One was paid  1000 dollars and the other 10,000 dollars. After a couple of months, the one who was paid 1000 dollars started to grumble and complain. They were experiencing the same situation, but they had different outlooks. Their future expectation coloured their outlook. 

What we believe about our future controls how we will experience our present. Hope is the way we overcome the feeling that our life amounts to nothing. Fatalistic, hopeless thinking affects entire cultures. 

ETERNAL LIVING HOPE is at the core of the gospel. The gospel is not about good ethics and living right. If that were all, we wouldn't need the Christian faith as many religions teach good ethics. We would not need to put our faith and hope in Jesus if the gospel is just about leading a good life. Yes, Christianity will change your life and culture as it has in the past. That is not the goal. 

This ETERNAL LIVING HOPE is certain. It is of no value if you are not sure. The resurrection of Jesus is what makes this hope certain. It proves that the cross was effective. It achieved its purpose. The cross paid the demands of sin, and so we have the resurrection. 

Resurrection says that you won't just get a consolation prize for the life you lost but a restoration of the life you lost. 

2. Hope gives meaning to life that suffering can try to take away from us. It can give you peace and assurance that is not based on circumstances. 

In all this, you greatly rejoice, though now, for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:6-7 )

Peter was writing to people who were suffering a great deal for their faith. Some were killed, tortured,  and had property confiscated.

Peter tells them to rejoice because this suffering is for a little while and, their coming through the fire of trials will result in them getting praise, glory and honour from Jesus. 

The early Christians were not interested in just a good ethical life. They needed to make sense of their pain and suffering. If all the gospel did was to teach them how to live a good life, that would be a tragedy. 

Trails and suffering open up the human soul and expose the depths of its foundations. Life only has meaning if we have a HOPE that even death cannot destroy. 

The foundation of your soul is what you are living. 

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REFLECT AND ASK YOURSELF

Do you have an eternal perspective? How do you view injustices you may face or even what you watch on the news?

How does eternal hope change the meaning of your life here on earth?