True Hope

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

Pain and suffering surround us and often encase us in hopelessness. The world is undoubtedly crumbling before us. The destruction that evil instigates is seemingly insurmountable. World hunger, natural disasters, riots, racial injustice, corrupt governments. Disease, addictions, grief, loneliness, abuse, mistakes. Depression is running rampant in this country, in our world. We are deeply affected by the sorrow that we so tediously endeavor to disguise. Eventually, we grow to be cynical and discouraged.

Where is our hope, our joyful and confident expectation of deliverance? Have we not been given a blessed assurance? If our faith does not offer hope, it is irrelevant. We must believe that Jesus Christ has the power to redeem creation. Remember John 16:33, "I have told you these things that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world."

In our trials and anguish, we must cling to this hope as "a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul." (Hebrews 6:19) We are often entrenched in our circumstances, and we doubt the promises of the One who is carrying us. We refuse to allow hope to infiltrate our reality and birth transformation.

One day, hope will surrender to reality, and Jesus will establish His triumph. Until then, we hold fast to that promise. We count our trials as joy (James 1), as they are the very thing that drive us to a desperate longing for God. I often think of the verse, "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:12) Gaze intently into that reflection. Even its blurred image is beautiful and full of hope.

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